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Creasy's  Decisive 
Battles  of  the  World 


The  World's 

Great  Books 

Committee 

of  Selection 

Thomas  B.  Reed 

William  R.  Harper 

Speaker  of  the  House 
of  Representatives 

President  of  the 
University  of  Chicago 

Edward  Everett  Hale 

Ainsworth  R.  SpofFord 

Author  of  The  Man 
Without  a  Country 

Of  the  Congressional 
Library 

Rossiter 

Johnson 

Editor  of  Little  Classics  and  Editor-in-Chief  of  this  Series 

Aldine  Edition 


EDWARD  SHEPHERD  CREASY. 

Photogravure  from  a  drawing  made  for  this  work. 


Decisive  Battles  of 
the  World 

By 

Edward   Shepherd  Creasy 


With  additional  chapters  on 
Gettysburg  and  Sedan 


Illustrated 


New  York 
D.  Appleton  and  Company 

1898 


Copyright,  1898, 
By  D.   APPLETON   AND   COMPANY. 


*&W&0&$8SSB&n 


CREASY'S   "DECISIVE    BATTLES 


PROFESSOR  CREASY  remarks  that  "  it  is  probable  that 
no  two  historical  inquirers  would  entirely  agree  in  their 
lists  of  the  decisive  battles  of  the  world."  He  must 
have  written  this  from  modesty,  rather  than  from  any  lack 
of  mastery  of  the  subject ;  for  his  own  list  has  hardly  been 
questioned,  and  his  book  became  a  standard  almost  from  its 
publication,  reaching  a  ninth  edition  within  six  years.  This 
was  because  the  subject,  put  in  that  form,  was  new,  and 
because  he  did  not  begin  his  work  till  he  had  formulated  a 
correct  and  defensible  definition  of  what  should  be  considered 
a  decisive  battle.  This  is  clearly  set  forth  in  his  preface, 
which  so  admirably  discusses  the  question  that  little  in  the 
way  of  criticism  remains  to  be  said. 

To  an  American  reader,  one  of  the  most  gratifying  things 
in  this  book  is  the  fact  that  its  author,  while  acknowledging 
that  "  the  war  which  rent  away  the  North  American  colonies 
from  England  is,  of  all  subjects  in  history,  the  most  painful 
for  an  Englishman  to  dwell  on,"  shows  a  most  intelligent 
and  generous  appreciation  of  the  greatness  and  probable 
destiny  of  our  Republic.  This  has  not  been  the  wont  of 
British  writers.  One  of  their  naval  historians  gives  more 
space  to  the  single  action  of  the  Chesapeake  and  the  Shannon 
than  to  all  the  other  actions  in  the  war  of  1812 — many  of 
the  others  being  brilliant  American  victories.  Perhaps  it  is 
too  much  to  expect  every  European  author  who  treats  of 
American  affairs  to  display  the  knowledge  and  fairness  of 
De  Tocqueville,  Bryce,  and  Goldwin  Smith ;  but  Professor 
Creasy  does  so  in  his  chapter  on  "  The  Victory  of  the  Ameri- 
cans at  Saratoga." 

Since  the  original  publication  of  the  book,  two  great  battles 
have  been  added  to  the  world's  decisive  conflicts,  —  Gettys- 


iv  CREASY'S   "DECISIVE   BATTLES" 

burg  and  Sedan,  —  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  author 
did  not  discuss  them  in  his  latest  edition.  As  he  neglected 
to  do  so,  two  chapters  devoted  to  these  battles  have  been 
specially  written  for  this  edition  by  American  authors. 

Edward  Shepherd  Creasy  was  born  in  Bexley,  Kent,  where 
his  father  was  a  land-agent,  in  1812.  A  few  years  later  the 
family  removed  to  Brighton,  where  the  father  became  an 
auctioneer  and  published  a  newspaper.  The  son  was  sent  to 
Eton,  and  obtained  a  scholarship.  He  went  thence  to  Cam- 
bridge in  1834,  and  in  1837  was  called  to  the  bar  at  Lincoln's 
Inn.  He  was  for  a  time  assistant  judge  of  the  Westminster 
sessions  court,  and  in  1840  was  made  Professor  of  History  in 
London  University.  He  was  a  Liberal  in  politics.  In  i860 
he  was  appointed  Chief  Justice  of  Ceylon  and  was  knighted. 
After  ten  years  of  service  in  the  isle  of  the  spicy  breezes,  he 
returned  to  England  with  broken  health,  and  on  January  27, 
1878,  he  died. 

His  "  Decisive  Battles,"  which  was  originally  published 
in  1852,  so  far  surpasses  all  his  other  work  in  popularity, 
that,  to  the  American  reader  at  least,  he  appears  to  be  that 
anomaly,  the  author  of  one  book.  But  in  truth  he  published  a 
dozen,  at  least  two  of  which  are  valuable.  His  first,  as  with 
many  other  eminent  writers  of  prose,  was  a  volume  of  poems, 
which  he  published  at  the  age  of  thirty-one.  This  was  fol- 
lowed by  "  Eton  College  "  (1848) ;  "  A  Text-book  of  the  Con- 
stitution "  (1848  ;  enlarged  as  a  history  of  the  English 
Constitution,  1856);  "Sub  Rege  Sacerdos  "  (1848);  "Emi- 
nent Etonians"  (1850)  ;  "The  Battle  of  Waterloo"  (1852); 
"  Fifteen  Decisive  Battles  of  the  World  "  (1852);  "  Invasions 
and  Projected  Invasions  of  England,  from  the  Saxon  Times  " 
(1852);  "  History  of  the  Ottoman  Turks  "  (1856);  "  A  His- 
tory of  England,  from  the  Earliest  to  the  Present  Time " 
(2  vols.,  unfinished,  1869-70);  "The  Old  Love  and  the 
New,"  a  novel  (1870);  "The  Imperial  and  Colonial  Consti- 
tutions of  the  Britannic  Empire,  including  Indian  Institu- 
tions"  (1872);  and  "The  First  Platform  of  International 
Law"  (1876).  His  "  History  of  the  English  Constitution" 
is  highly  esteemed  in  his  own  country.  His  "  History  of 
England  "  was  intended  to  be  brought  down  to  the  present 
time  in  five  moderate  volumes,  and  the  two  that  were  pub- 


CREASY'S   "DECISIVE   BATTLES  v 

lished  gave  promise  of  one  of  the  most  admirable  of  short 
histories.  Professor  Creasy  was  associated  with  Dr.  Gordon 
Latham  and  Mr.  Sheehan  in  contributing  to  "  Bentley's 
Miscellany"  the  political  poems  called  "The  Tipperary 
Papers." 

The  modern  fashion  of  writing  history  is,  to  ignore  dynas- 
ties and  military  operations  as  much  as  possible,  and  even  to 
treat  legislation  and  forms  of  government  as  rather  incidental 
than  essential,  while  mercantile  and  industrial  developments 
are  dwelt  upon  and  religious  and  intellectual  movements 
traced  —  the  results  being  called  histories  of  the  people  as 
distinguished  from  the  sovereigns  or  the  government.  This 
may  be  correct,  and  the  nations  would  certainly  be  happier  if 
not  more  virtuous,  were  there  to  be  henceforth  no  other  kind 
of  history  to  write.  But  we  cannot  ignore  the  fact  that  in 
the  past  battles  have  turned  the  destinies  of  the  race ;  while 
the  dawn  of  universal  and  permanent  peace  has  been  so  often 
vainly  announced  that  we  are  still  justified  in  studying  the 
art  of  war. 

R.  J. 


THE   AUTHOR'S    PREFACE 


IT  is  an  honorable  characteristic  of  the  spirit  of  this  age,  that 
projects  of  violence  and  warfare  are  regarded  among  civi- 
lized states  with  gradually  increasing  aversion.  The  Uni- 
versal Peace  Society  certainly  does  not,  and  probably  never 
will,  enroll  the  majority  of  statesmen  among  its  members. 
But  even  those  who  look  upon  the  appeal  of  battle  as  occa- 
sionally unavoidable  in  international  controversies  concur  in 
thinking  it  a  deplorable  necessity,  only  to  be  resorted  to 
when  all  peaceful  modes  of  arrangement  have  been  vainly 
tried,  and  when  the  law  of  self-defense  justifies  a  state,  like 
an  individual,  in  using  force  to  protect  itself  from  imminent 
and  serious  injury.  For  a  writer,  therefore,  of  the  present 
day  to  choose  battles  for  his  favorite  topic  merely  because 
they  were  battles,  merely  because  so  many  myriads  of  troops 
were  arrayed  in  them,  and  so  many  hundreds  or  thousands 
of  human  beings  stabbed,  hewed,  or  shot  each  other  to 
death  during  them,  would  argue  strange  weakness  or  de- 
pravity of  mind.  Yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that  a  fearful  and 
wonderful  interest  is  attached  to  these  scenes  of  carnage. 
There  is  undeniable  greatness  in  the  disciplined  courage  and 
in  the  love  of  honor  which  make  the  combatants  confront 
agony  and  destruction.  And  the  powers  of  the  human  intel- 
lect are  rarely  more  strongly  displayed  than  they  are  in  the 
commander  who  regulates,  arrays,  and  wields  at  his  will 
these  masses  of  armed  disputants ;  who,  cool  yet  daring,  in 
the  midst  of  peril,  reflects  on  all,  and  provides  for  all,  ever 
ready  with  fresh  resources  and  designs,  as  the  vicissitudes 
of  the  storm  of  slaughter  require.  But  these  qualities,  how- 
ever high  they  may  appear,  are  to  be  found  in  the  basest  as 
well  as  in  the  noblest  of  mankind.  Catiline  was  as  brave  a 
soldier  as  Leonidas,  and  a  much  better    officer.     Alva  sur- 


viii  DECISIVE    BATTLES 

passed  the  Prince  of  Orange  in  the  field ;  and  Suwarrow  was 
the  military  superior  of  Kosciusko.  To  adopt  the  emphatic 
words  of  Byron  — 

"  'Tis  the  cause  makes  all, 
Degrades  or  hallows  courage  in  its  fall." 

There  are  some  battles,  also,  which  claim  our  attention,  inde- 
pendently of  the  moral  worth  of  the  combatants,  on  account  of 
their  enduring  importance,  and  by  reason  of  the  practical  in- 
fluence on  our  own  social  and  political  condition,  which  we  can 
trace  up  to  the  results  of  those  engagements.  They  have  for 
us  an  abiding  and  actual  interest,  both  while  we  investigate 
the  chain  of  causes  and  effects  by  which  they  have  helped  to 
make  us  what  we  are,  and  also  while  we  speculate  on  what  we 
probably  should  have  been  if  any  one  of  these  battles  had 
come  to  a  different  termination.  Hallam  has  admirably 
expressed  this  in  his  remarks  on  the  victory  gained  by 
Charles  Martel,  between  Tours  and  Poictiers,  over  the  invad- 
ing Saracens. 

He  says  of  it,  that  "  it  may  justly  be  reckoned  among  those 
few  battles  of  which  a  contrary  event  would  have  essentially 
varied  the  drama  of  the  world  in  all  its  subsequent  scenes :  with 
Marathon,  Arbela,  the  Metaurus,  Chalons,  and  Leipsic."  It 
was  the  perusal  of  this  note  of  Hallam's  that  first  led  me  to 
the  consideration  of  my  present  subject.  I  certainly  differ 
with  that  great  historian  as  to  the  comparative  importance  of 
some  of  the  battles  which  he  thus  enumerates,  and  also  of 
some  which  he  omits.  It  is  probable,  indeed,  that  no  two 
historical  inquirers  would  entirely  agree  in  their  lists  of  the 
decisive  battles  of  the  world.  Different  minds  will  naturally 
vary  in  the  impressions  which  particular  events  make  on 
them ;  and  in  the  degree  of  interest  with  which  they  watch 
the  career,  and  reflect  on  the  importance,  of  different  his- 
torical personages.  But  our  concurrence  in  our  catalogues 
is  of  little  moment,  provided  we  learn  to  look  on  these  great 
historical  events  in  the  spirit  which  Hallam's  observations 
indicate.  Those  remarks  should  teach  us  to  watch  how  the 
interests  of  many  states  are  often  involved  in  the  collisions 
between  a  few ;  and  how  the  effect  of  those  collisions  is  not 
limited  to  a  single  age,  but  may  receive  an  impulse  which 


AUTHOR'S   PREFACE  ix 

will  sway  the  fortunes  of  successive  generations  of  mankind. 
Most  valuable  also  is  the  mental  discipline  which  is  thus  ac- 
quired, and  by  which  we  are  trained  not  only  to  observe  what 
has  been  and  what  is,  but  also  to  ponder  on  what  might  have 
been. 

We  thus  learn  not  to  judge  of  the  wisdom  of  measures  too 
exclusively  by  the  results.  We  learn  to  apply  the  juster 
standard  of  seeing  what  the  circumstances  and  the  proba- 
bilities were  that  surrounded  a  statesman  or  a  general  at  the 
time  when  he  decided  on  his  plan ;  we  value  him  not  by  his 
fortune,  but  by  his  Trpoaipecris,  to  adopt  the  expressive  Greek 
word,  for  which  our  language  gives  no  equivalent. 

The  reasons  why  each  of  the  following  fifteen  battles  has 
been  selected  will,  I  trust,  appear  when  it  is  described.  But 
it  may  be  well  to  premise  a  few  remarks  on  the  negative  tests 
which  have  led  me  to  reject  others  which  at  first  sight  may 
appear  equal  in  magnitude  and  importance  to  the  chosen 
fifteen. 

I  need  hardly  remark  that  it  is  not  the  number  of  killed 
and  wounded  in  a  battle  that  determines  its  general  histori- 
cal importance.  It  is  not  because  only  a  few  hundreds  fell 
in  the  battle  by  which  Joan  of  Arc  captured  the  Tourelles  and 
raised  the  siege  of  Orleans  that  the  effect  of  that  crisis  is  to 
be  judged;  nor  would  a  full  belief  in  the  largest  number 
which  Eastern  historians  state  to  have  been  slaughtered  in 
any  of  the  numerous  conflicts  between  Asiatic  rulers  make 
me  regard  the  engagement  in  which  they  fell  as  one  of  para- 
mount importance  to  mankind.  But,  besides  battles  of  this 
kind,  there  are  many  of  great  consequence,  and  attended 
with  circumstances  which  powerfully  excite  our  feelings  and 
rivet  our  attention,  which  yet  appear  to  me  of  mere  second- 
ary rank,  inasmuch  as  either  their  effects  were  limited  in 
area,  or  they  themselves  merely  confirmed  some  great  ten- 
dency or  bias  which  an  earlier  battle  had  originated.  For 
example,  the  encounters  between  the  Greeks  and  Persians 
which  followed  Marathon  seem  to  me  not  to  have  been  phe- 
nomena of  primary  impulse.  Greek  superiority  had  been 
already  asserted,  Asiatic  ambition  had  been  already  checked, 
before  Salamis  and  Plataea  confirmed  the  superiority  of  Euro- 
pean free  states  over  Oriental  despotism.     So,  ^gos-Potamos, 


X  DECISIVE    BATTLES 

which  finally  crushed  the  maritime  power  of  Athens,  seems 
to  me  inferior  in  interest  to  the  defeat  before  Syracuse,  where 
Athens  received  her  first  fatal  check,  and  after  which  she  only 
struggled  to  retard  her  downfall.  I  think  similarly  of  Zama 
with  respect  to  Carthage,  as  compared  with  the  Metaurus ; 
and,  on  the  same  principle,  the  subsequent  great  battles  of 
the  Revolutionary  war  appear  to  me  inferior  in  their  impor- 
tance to  Valmy,  which  first  determined  the  military  character 
and  career  of  the  French  Revolution. 

I  am  aware  that  a  little  activity  of  imagination,  and  a  slight 
exercise  of  metaphysical  ingenuity,  may  amuse  us,  by  show- 
ing how  the  chain  of  circumstances  is  so  linked  together  that 
the  smallest  skirmish,  or  the  slightest  event  of  any  kind 
that  ever  occurred,  may  be  said  to  have  been  essential,  in  its 
actual  termination,  to  the  whole  order  of  subsequent  events. 
But  when  I  speak  of  causes  and  effects,  I  speak  of  the  obvious 
and  important  agency  of  one  fact  upon  another,  and  not  of 
remote  and  fancifully  infinitesimal  influences.  I  am  aware 
that,  on  the  other  hand,  the  reproach  of  fatalism  is  justly  in- 
curred by  those  who,  like  the  writers  of  a  certain  school  in  a 
neighboring  country,  recognize  in  history  nothing  more  than 
a  series  of  necessary  phenomena,  which  follow  inevitably  one 
upon  the  other.  But  when,  in  this  work,  I  speak  of  proba- 
bilities, I  speak  of  human  probabilities  only.  When  I  speak 
of  cause  and  effect,  I  speak  of  those  general  laws  by  which 
we  perceive  the  sequence  of  human  affairs  to  be  usually 
regulated,  and  in  which  we  recognize  emphatically  the  wisdom 
and  power  of  the  Supreme  Lawgiver,  the  design  of  the 
Designer. 

Mitre  Court  Chambers,  Temple, 
June  26,  1 85 1. 


FAMOUS  AXD  UNIQUE  MANUSCRIPT  AND 
BOOK  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

A  series  of  fac-similes,  showing  the  development  of  manuscript  and 
book  illustrating  during  4000  years. 


A  PAGE  FROM  L  YD  GATE'S  LIFE   OF 
ST.  EDMUND. 

The  manuscript  from  which  this  specimen  Is  taken  was  written  by  order 
of  the  Abbot  Curteis,  of  Bury  St.  Edmunds,  in  the  year  1433,  as  a  present  to 
King  Henry  VII.,  who,  as  a  boy  of  twelve  years  spent  the  Christmas  holidays 
at  the  Abbey.  The  embellishment  is  an  example  of  the  most  decorative  style 
attained  by  the  ivy-leaf  pattern.  It  enclosed  the  commencement  of  the  poem 
of  St.  Edmund,  as  translated  by  Lydgate  from  the  French,  and  in  modern 
English  spelling  would  read: 

In  Saxony  whilom  there  was  a  king 

Called  Edmund,  of  excellent  noblesse, 

A  manly  prince  virtuous  of  living 

And  full  habounde  (1)  of  treasure  and  richesse, 

Metalle  in  armes,  full  renowned  of  prowesse, 

A  seemly  person,  hardy  and  courageous, 

Mercury  in  wisdom,  like  Mars  victorious) 

(1)  Habounde  =  abundance. 


as  a  (Smff 
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Qtota&k  m  armt^  A»t  rcnom«fi>  of  ■mjSuM.fji 
S^i  f«m&>  »*rftne/$ar.$>i  aivS)  cop^ccu* 
V^Krcum  tn  Unlearn /iil>*r)ar»V«ct^li<>u* 

^.^4  ... 

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curcum&ect  as  fom©u»  <Sc\ptdn 
£yn  cj(v  fymour/  of  tno/t  <»  offence 
f5)c  m  &w  tjmx  /  tfiaui^lrUiny'a  region 
^^ut  uaX^^tRftattSmttt  fits  Amou*  fet"wn5n 
•^«  ft  23temenft-§'&i*  nifinobteilV  nv§)e«S)e 
"3a  Koue  aF  tte/eur  <  t*  &ue  <jo$>  ai\S>  ^)t-eeS)« 

"S^ctSfi  honour  +Kdufy  K«  \Wr t  fortun&f j 
(Set  m  a  cKatcr/  of  Pyrum  ®itfmtc 
<Sn«0ou£)c  Bno\W/i»^Ku  rovaTefrat 
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<^Xi»S)«S>u«rt*|S)/mRttm«>|t  niftyeftt 
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-~ggg  fy  Wtfiat  fcuc  not  tto^/»nf)grt*art3)  tffcufy: 


2T>cDtcatru  to 
ROBERT   GORDON    LATHAM,    M.D.,   F.R.S. 

Late  Fellow  of  King's  College,  Cambridge; 

Fellow  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians,  London;  Member  of  the  Ethnological 

Society,  New  York;   Late  Professor  of  the  English  Language  and 

Literature  in  University  College,  London 

BY   HIS   FRIEND 
THE    AUTHOR 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   I 

PAGE 

The  Battle  of  Marathon,  490  b.c 1 

Explanatory  Remarks  on  Some  of  the  Circumstances  of  the  Battle 
of  Marathon 32 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Marathon  and  the  Defeat 
of  the  Athenians  at  Syracuse 33 

CHAPTER    II 
Defeat  of  the  Athenians  at  Syracuse,  413  b.c.      ...      37 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Defeat  of  the  Athenians  at  Syra- 
cuse and  the  Battle  of  Arbela 56 

CHAPTER   III 
The  Battle  of  Arbela,  331  b.c. 59 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Arbela  and  the  Battle  of 
the  Metaurus 82 

CHAPTER   IV 
The  Battle  of  the  Metaurus,  207  b.c 87 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  the  Metaurus  and 
Arminius's  Victory  over  the  Roman  Legions  under  Varus        .     116 

CHAPTER    V 

Victory  of  Arminius  over  the  Roman  Legions  under  Varus, 

9  a.d 123 

Arminius 136 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  Arminius's  Victory  over  Varus  and 
the  Battle  of  Chalons 146 


XIV  DECISIVE    BATTLES 

CHAPTER   VI 

PAGE 

The  Battle  of  Chalons,  451  149 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Chalons  and  the  Battle 
of  Tours 164 

CHAPTER   VII 
The  Battle  of  Tours,  732 166 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Tours  and  the  Battle 
of  Hastings 176 

CHAPTER   VIII 
The  Battle  of  Hastings,  1066 179 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Hastings  and  Joan  of 
Arc's  Victory  at  Orleans 215 

CHAPTER   IX 
Joan  of  Arc's  Victory  over  the  English  at  Orleans,  1429    219 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  Joan  of  Arc's  Victory  at  Orleans  and 
the  Defeat  of  the  Spanish  Armada 238 

CHAPTER   X 
The  Defeat  of  the  Spanish  Armada,  1588      ....    240 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Defeat  of  the  Spanish  Armada 
and  the  Battle  of  Blenheim 271 

CHAPTER   XI 
The  Battle  of  Blenheim,  1704 274 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Blenheim  and  the  Battle 
of  Pultowa 298 

CHAPTER   XII 
The  Battle  of  Pultowa,  1709 299 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Pultowa  and  the  Defeat 
of  Burgoyne  at  Saratoga    .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .     313 


CONTENTS  XV 

CHAPTER    XIII 

PAGE 

Victory    of   the   Americans   over   Burgoyne  at   Saratoga, 

1777 316 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Defeat  of  Burgoyne  at  Saratoga 
and  the  Battle  of  Valmy 345 

CHAPTER  XIV 
The  Battle  of  Valmy,  1792 346 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Valmy  and  the  Battle 
of  Waterloo 362 

CHAPTER  XV 
The  Battle  of  Waterloo,  181 5 364 

CHAPTER   XVI 

The  Battle  of  Gettysburg,  1863.     (Written  for  this  edition  by 

Rossiter  Johnson) 431 

CHAPTER  XVII 

The  Battle  of  Sedan,  1870.     (Written  for  this  edition  by  Frank 

Huntington)  .........     449 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Edward  Shepherd  Creasy  facing  page 

Photogravure  from  a  portrait  .....         Frontispiece 

Lydgate's  Life  of  St.  Edmund 

Illuminated  page  from  fifteenth-century  manuscript     .         .         .         .         x 

Charles  Martel 

Photogravure  from  a  painting  by  Tugnetti    ......     166 

William  the  Conqueror 

Photogravure  from  a  drawing  by  Guilleminot        .         .         .         .         .178 
The  Battle  of  Hastings 

Photogravure  from  an  engraving   .         .  .         .         .         .         .         .     2IO 

Joan  of  Arc  listening  to  the  Voices 

Photogravure  from  a  painting  by  Wagrez      ......     226 

Peter  the  Great 

Photogravure  from  a  painting  by  Kneller 306 

After  Waterloo 

Photogravure  from  a  painting  by  A.  C.  Gow  .....     412 

Pickett's  Charge  at  Gettysburg 

Photogravure  from  a  painting  by  Philipoteaux 446 

Moltke  at  Sedan 

Photogravure  from  a  painting  by  A.  von  Werner 468 

xvii 


THE 

DECISIVE  BATTLES  OF  THE  WORLD 


°»<c 


CHAPTER   I 

The  Battle  of  Marathon,  490  B.C. 

"  Quibus  actus  uterque 
Europae  atque  Asia?  fatis  concurrent  orbis." 

TWO  thousand  three  hundred  and  forty  years  ago,  a 
council  of  Athenian  officers  was  summoned  on  the 
slope  of  one  of  the  mountains  that  look  over  the  plain 
of  Marathon,  on  the  eastern  coast  of  Attica.  The  immediate 
subject  of  their  meeting  was  to  consider  whether  they  should 
give  battle  to  an  enemy  that  lay  encamped  on  the  shore 
beneath  them ;  but  on  the  result  of  their  deliberations  de- 
pended, not  merely  the  fate  of  two  armies,  but  the  whole  future 
progress  of  human  civilization. 

There  were  eleven  members  of  that  council  of  war.  Ten 
were  the  generals,  who  were  then  annually  elected  at  Athens, 
one  for  each  of  the  local  tribes  into  which  the  Athenians  were 
divided.  Each  general  led  the  men  of  his  own  tribe,  and 
each  was  invested  with  equal  military  authority.  One  also 
of  the  Archons  was  associated  with  them  in  the  joint  command 
of  the  collective  force.  This  magistrate  was  termed  the  Pol- 
emarch,  or  War  Ruler  :  he  had  the  privilege  of  leading  the 
right  wing  of  the  army  in  battle,  and  of  taking  part  in  all 
councils  of  war.  A  noble  Athenian,  named  Callimachus,  was 
the  War  Ruler  of  this  year ;  and,  as  such,  stood  listening  to  the 
earnest  discussion  of  the  ten  generals.  They  had,  indeed, 
deep  matter  for  anxiety,  though  little  aware  how  momentous 
to  mankind  were  the  votes  they  were  about  to  give,  or  how 
the  generations  to  come  would  read  with  interest  the  record 


2  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [490  B.C. 

of  their  debate.  They  saw  before  them  the  invading  forces 
of  a  mighty  empire,  which  had  in  the  last  fifty  years  shattered 
and  enslaved  nearly  all  the  kingdoms  and  principalities  of 
the  then  known  world.  They  knew  that  all  the  resources  of 
their  own  country  were  comprised  in  the  little  army  entrusted 
to  their  guidance.  They  saw  before  them  a  chosen  host  of 
the  Great  King,  sent  to  wreak  his  special  wrath  on  that  coun- 
try, and  on  the  other  insolent  little  Greek  community,  which 
had  dared  to  aid  his  rebels  and  burn  the  capital  of  one  of  his 
provinces.  That  victorious  host  had  already  fulfilled  half  its 
mission  of  vengeance.  Eretria,  the  confederate  of  Athens  in 
the  bold  march  against  Sardis  nine  years  before,  had  fallen 
in  the  last  few  days  ;  and  the  Athenian  generals  could  discern 
from  the  heights  the  island  of  i^gilia,  in  which  the  Persians 
had  deposited  their  Eretrian  prisoners,  whom  they  had  re- 
served to  be  led  away  captives  into  Upper  Asia,  there  to  hear 
their  doom  from  the  lips  of  King  Darius  himself.  Moreover, 
the  men  of  Athens  knew  that  in  the  camp  before  them  was 
their  own  banished  tyrant,  Hippias,  who  was  seeking  to  be 
reinstated  by  foreign  simitars  in  despotic  sway  over  any 
remnant  of  his  countrymen  that  might  survive  the  sack  of 
their  town,  and  might  be  left  behind  as  too  worthless  for 
leading  away  into  Median  bondage. 

The  numerical  disparity  between  the  force  which  the  Athe- 
nian commanders  had  under  them,  and  that  which  they  were 
called  on  to  encounter,  was  fearfully  apparent  to  some  of  the 
council.  The  historians  who  wrote  nearest  to  the  time  of  the 
battle  do  not  pretend  to  give  any  detailed  statements  of  the  num- 
bers engaged,  but  there  are  sufficient  data  for  our  making  a 
general  estimate.  Every  free  Greek  was  trained  to  military 
duty ;  and,  from  the  incessant  border  wars  between  the  differ- 
ent states,  few  Greeks  reached  the  age  of  manhood  without 
having  seen  some  service.  But  the  muster-roll  of  free  Athe- 
nian citizens  of  an  age  fit  for  military  duty  never  exceeded 
thirty  thousand,  and  at  this  epoch  probably  did  not  amount 
to  two  thirds  of  that  number.  Moreover,  the  poorer  portion 
of  these  were  unprovided  with  the  equipments  and  untrained 
to  the  operations  of  the  regular  infantry.  Some  detachments 
of  the  best-armed  troops  would  be  required  to  garrison  the 
city  itself  and  man  the  various  fortified  posts  in  the  territory ; 


490  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   MARATHON  3 

so  that  it  is  impossible  to  reckon  the  fully  equipped  force  that 
marched  from  Athens  to  Marathon,  when  the  news  of  the 
Persian  landing  arrived,  at  higher  than  ten  thousand  men.1 

With  one  exception,  the  other  Greeks  held  back  from  aid- 
ing them.  Sparta  had  promised  assistance  ;  but  the  Persians 
had  landed  on  the  sixth  day  of  the  moon,  and  a  religious 
scruple  delayed  the  march  of  Spartan  troops  till  the  moon 
should  have  reached  its  full.  From  one  quarter  only,  and 
that  a  most  unexpected  one,  did  Athens  receive  aid  at  the 
moment  of  her  great  peril. 

For  some  years  before  this  time,  the  little  state  of  Plataea 
in  Bceotia,  being  hard  pressed  by  her  powerful  neighbor, 
Thebes,  had  asked  the  protection  of  Athens,  and  had  owed 
to  an  Athenian  army  the  rescue  of  her  independence.  Now 
when  it  was  noised  over  Greece  that  the  Mede  had  come 
from  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth  to  destroy  Athens,  the 
brave  Plataeans,  unsolicited,  marched  with  their  whole  force 
to  assist  in  the  defense,  and  to  share  the  fortunes  of  their 
benefactors.  The  general  levy  of  the  Plataeans  only  amounted 
to  a  thousand  men ;  and  this  little  column,  marching  from 
their  city  along  the  southern  ridge  of  Mount  Cithaeron,  and 
thence  across  the  Attic  territory,  joined  the  Athenian  forces 
above  Marathon  almost  immediately  before  the  battle.  The 
reenforcement  was  numerically  small ;  but  the  gallant  spirit 
of  the  men  who  composed  it  must  have  made  it  of  tenfold 
value  to  the  Athenians,  and  its  presence  must  have  gone  far 
to  dispel  the  cheerless  feeling  of  being  deserted  and  friendless 
which  the  delay  of  the  Spartan  succors  was  calculated  to 
create  among  the  Athenian  ranks. 

This  generous  daring  of  their  weak  but  true-hearted  ally 
was  never  forgotten  at  Athens.  The  Plataeans  were  made 
the  fellow  countrymen  of  the  Athenians,  except  the  right  of 
exercising  certain  political  functions  ;  and  from  that  time  forth, 
in  the  solemn  sacrifices  at  Athens,  the  public  prayers  were 
offered  up  for  a  joint  blessing  from  Heaven  upon  the  Athe- 
nians, and  the  Plataeans  also.2 

After  the  junction  of  the  column  from  Plataea,  the  Athe- 
nian commanders  must  have  had  under  them  about  eleven 
thousand  fully  armed  and  disciplined  infantry,  and  probably 
a  larger  number  of  irregular  light-armed  troops ;  as,  besides 


4  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [490  B.C. 

the  poorer  citizens  who  went  to  the  field  armed  with  javelins, 
cutlasses,  and  targets,  each  regular  heavy-armed  soldier  was 
attended  in  the  camp  by  one  or  more  slaves,  who  were  armed 
like  the  inferior  freemen.3  Cavalry  or  archers  the  Athenians 
(on  this  occasion)  had  none ;  and  the  use  in  the  field  of  mili- 
tary engines  was  not  at  that  period  introduced  into  ancient 
warfare. 

Contrasted  with  their  own  scanty  forces,  the  Greek  com- 
manders saw  stretched  before  them,  along  the  shores  of  the 
winding  bay,  the  tents  and  shipping  of  the  varied  nations  that 
marched  to  do  the  bidding  of  the  king  of  the  Eastern  world. 
The  difficulty  of  finding  transports  and  of  securing  provisions 
would  form  the  only  limit  to  the  numbers  of  a  Persian  army. 
Nor  is  there  any  reason  to  suppose  the  estimate  of  Justin  ex- 
aggerated, who  rates  at  a  hundred  thousand  the  force  which 
on  this  occasion  had  sailed,  under  the  satraps  Datis  and  Arta- 
phernes,  from  the  Cilician  shores,  against  the  devoted  coasts 
of  Eubosa  and  Attica.  And  after  largely  deducting  from  this 
total,  so  as  to  allow  for  mere  mariners  and  camp-followers, 
there  must  still  have  remained  fearful  odds  against  the  na- 
tional levies  of  the  Athenians.  Nor  could  Greek  generals 
then  feel  that  confidence  in  the  superior  quality  of  their 
troops  which  ever  since  the  battle  of  Marathon  has  animated 
Europeans  in  conflicts  with  Asiatics  ;  as,  for  instance,  in  the 
after  struggles  between  Greece  and  Persia,  or  when  the  Roman 
legions  encountered  the  myriads  of  Mithridates  and  Tigranes, 
or  as  is  the  case  in  the  Indian  campaigns  of  our  own  regi- 
ments. On  the  contrary,  up  to  the  day  of  Marathon  the 
Medes  and  Persians  were  reputed  invincible. I  They  had  more 
than  once  met  Greek  troops  in  Asia  Minor,  in  Cyprus,  in 
Egypt,  and  had  invariably  beaten  them.  Nothing  can  be 
stronger  than  the  expressions  used  by  the  early  Greek  writers 
respecting  the  terror  which  the  name  of  the  Medes  inspired, 
and  the  prostration  of  men's  spirits  before  the  apparently 
resistless  career  of  the  Persian  arms.  It  is,  therefore,  little 
to  be  wondered  at  that  five  of  the  ten  Athenian  generals 
shrank  from  the  prospect  of  fighting  a  pitched  battle  against 
an  enemy  so  superior  in  numbers,  and  so  formidable  in  mili- 
tary renown.  Their  own  position  on  the  heights  was  strong, 
.and   offered  great  advantages  to  a  small   defending   force 


490B.C]  BATTLE   OF   MARATHON  5 

against  assailing  masses.  They  deemed  it  mere  foolhardi- 
ness  to  descend  into  the  plain  to  be  trampled  down  by  the 
Asiatic  horse,  overwhelmed  with  the  archery,  or  cut  to  pieces 
by  the  invincible  veterans  of  Cambyses  and  Cyrus.  More- 
over, Sparta,  the  great  war  state  of  Greece,  had  been  applied 
to,  and  had  promised  succor  to  Athens,  though  the  religious 
observance  which  the  Dorians  paid  to  certain  times  and  sea- 
sons had  for  the  present  delayed  their  march.  Was  it  not 
wise,  at  any  rate,  to  wait  till  the  Spartans  came  up,  and  to 
have  the  help  of  the  best  troops  in  Greece,  before  they 
exposed  themselves  to  the  shock  of  the  dreaded  Medes  ? 

Specious  as  these  reasons  might  appear,  the  other  five 
generals  were  for  speedier  and  bolder  operations.  And, 
fortunately  for  Athens  and  for  the  world,  one  of  them  was  a 
man,  not  only  of  the  highest  military  genius,  but  also  of  that 
energetic  character  which  impresses  its  own  type  and  ideas 
upon  spirits  feebler  in  conception. 

Miltiades  was  the  head  of  one  of  the  noblest  houses  at 
Athens :  he  ranked  the  ^Eacidae  among  his  ancestry,  and  the 
blood  of  Achilles  flowed  in  the  veins  of  the  hero  of  Marathon. 
One  of  his  immediate  ancestors  had  acquired  the  dominion  of 
the  Thracian  Chersonese,  and  thus  the  family  became  at  the 
same  time  Athenian  citizens  and  Thracian  princes.  This 
occurred  at  the  time  when  Pisistratus  was  tyrant  of  Athens. 
Two  of  the  relatives  of  Miltiades  —  an  uncle  of  the  same  name, 
and  a  brother  named  Stesagoras  —  had  ruled  the  Chersonese 
before  Miltiades  became  its  prince.  He  had  been  brought  up 
at  Athens  in  the  house  of  his  father  Cimon,  who  was  renowned 
throughout  Greece  for  his  victories  in  the  Olympic  chariot- 
races,  and  who  must  have  been  possessed  of  great  wealth. 
The  sons  of  Pisistratus,  who  succeeded  their  father  in  the 
tyranny  at  Athens,  caused  Cimon  to  be  assassinated,  but  they 
treated  the  young  Miltiades  with  favor  and  kindness ;  and 
when  his  brother  Stesagoras  died  in  the  Chersonese,  they 
sent  him  out  there  as  lord  of  the  principality.  This  was 
about  twenty-eight  years  before  the  battle  of  Marathon,  and 
it  is  with  his  arrival  in  the  Chersonese  that  our  first  knowl- 
edge of  the  career  and  character  of  Miltiades  commences. 
We  find,  in  the  first  act  recorded  of  him,  proof  of  the  same 
resolute    and    unscrupulous    spirit   that    marked  his    mature 


6  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [490  B.C. 

age.  His  brother's  authority  in  the  principality  had  been 
shaken  by  war  and  revolt :  Miltiades  determined  to  rule  more 
securely.  On  his  arrival  he  kept  close  within  his  house,  as 
if  he  were  mourning  for  his  brother.  The  principal  men  of 
the  Chersonese,  hearing  of  this,  assembled  from  all  the 
towns  and  districts,  and  went  together  to  the  house  of  Miltia- 
des on  a  visit  of  condolence.  As  soon  as  he  had  thus  got 
them  in  his  power,  he  made  them  all  prisoners.  He  then 
asserted  and  maintained  his  own  absolute  authority  in  the 
peninsula,  taking  into  his  pay  a  body  of  five  hundred  regu- 
lar troops,  and  strengthening  his  interest  by  marrying  the 
daughter  of  the  king  of  the  neighboring  Thracians. 

When  the  Persian  power  was  extended  to  the  Hellespont 
and  its  neighborhood,  Miltiades,  as  prince  of  the  Chersonese, 
submitted  to  King  Darius ;  and  he  was  one  of  the  numerous 
tributary  rulers  who  led  their  contingents  of  men  to  serve  in 
the  Persian  army  in  the  expedition  against  Scythia.  Miltia- 
des and  the  vassal  Greeks  of  Asia  Minor  were  left  by  the 
Persian  king  in  charge  of  the  bridge  across  the  Danube, 
when  the  invading  army  crossed  that  river  and  plunged  into 
the  wilds  of  the  country  that  now  is  Russia,  in  vain  pursuit 
of  the  ancestors  of  the  modern  Cossacks.  On  learning  the 
reverses  that  Darius  met  with  in  the  Scythian  wilderness, 
Miltiades  proposed  to  his  companions  that  they  should  break 
the  bridge  down,  and  leave  the  Persian  king  and  his  army  to 
perish  by  famine  and  the  Scythian  arrows.  The  rulers  of 
the  Asiatic  Greek  cities  whom  Miltiades  addressed  shrank 
from  this  bold  and  ruthless  stroke  against  the  Persian  power, 
and  Darius  returned  in  safety.  But  it  was  known  what 
advice  Miltiades  had  given ;  and  the  vengeance  of  Darius 
was  thenceforth  specially  directed  against  the  man  who  had 
counseled  such  a  deadly  blow  against  his  empire  and  his 
person/  The  occupation  of  the  Persian  arms  in  other  quar- 
ters left  Miltiades  for  some  years  after  this  in  possession  of 
the  Chersonese ;  but  it  was  precarious  and  interrupted.  He, 
however,  availed  himself  of  the  opportunity  which  his  posi- 
tion gave  him  of  conciliating  the  good-will  of  his  fellow  coun- 
trymen at  Athens  by  conquering  and  placing  under  Athenian 
authority  the  islands  of  Lemnos  and  Imbros,  to  which  Athens 
had  ancient  claims,  but  which  she  had  never  previously  been 


490  B.C.]  BATTLE    OF   MARATHON  7 

able  to  bring  into  complete  subjection.  At  length,  in  494  B.C., 
the  complete  suppression  of  the  Ionian  revolt  by  the  Persians 
left  their  armies  and  fleets  at  liberty  to  act  against  the 
enemies  of  the  Great  King  to  the  west  of  the  Hellespont. 
A  strong  squadron  of  Phoenician  galleys  was  sent  against 
the  Chersonese.  Miltiades  knew  that  resistance  was  hope- 
less; and  while  the  Phoenicians  were  at  Tenedos,  he  loaded 
five  galleys  with  all  the  treasure  that  he  could  collect,  and 
sailed  away  for  Athens.  The  Phoenicians  fell  in  with  him, 
and  chased  him  hard  along  the  north  of  the  yEgean.  One 
of  his  galleys,  on  board  of  which  was  his  eldest  son,  Meti- 
ochus,  was  actually  captured ;  but  Miltiades,  with  the  other 
four,  succeeded  in  reaching  the  friendly  coast  of  Imbros  in 
safety.  Thence  he  afterwards  proceeded  to  Athens,  and 
resumed  his  station  as  a  free  citizen  of  the  Athenian 
commonwealth. 

The  Athenians  at  this  time  had  recently  expelled  Hippias, 
the  son  of  Pisistratus,  the  last  of  their  tyrants.  They  were 
in  the  full  glow  of  their  newly  recovered  liberty  and  equality ; 
and  the  constitutional  changes  of  Cleisthenes  had  inflamed 
their  republican  zeal  to  the  utmost.  Miltiades  had  enemies 
at  Athens  ;  and  these,  availing  themselves  of  the  state  of  pop- 
ular feeling,  brought  him  to  trial  for  his  life  for  having  been 
tyrant  of  the  Chersonese.  The  charge  did  not  necessarily 
import  any  acts  of  cruelty  or  wrong  to  individuals  :  it  was 
founded  on  no  specific  law ;  but  it  was  based  on  the  horror 
with  which  the  Greeks  of  that  age  regarded  every  man  who 
made  himself  compulsory  master  of  his  fellow  men,  and  exer- 
cised irresponsible  dominion  over  them.  The  fact  of  Miltia- 
des having  so  ruled  in  the  Chersonese  was  undeniable ;  but 
the  questions  which  the  Athenians,  assembled  in  judgment, 
must  have  tried  was,  whether  Miltiades,  by  becoming  tyrant 
of  the  Chersonese,  deserved  punishment  as  an  Athenian  citi- 
zen. The  eminent  service  that  he  had  done  the  state  in  con- 
quering Lemnos  and  Imbros  for  it  pleaded  strongly  in  his 
favor.  The  people  refused  to  convict  him.  He  stood  high 
in  public  opinion ;  and  when  the  coming  invasion  of  the  Per- 
sians was  known,  the  people  wisely  elected  him  one  of  their 
generals  for  the  year. 

Two  other  men  of  signal  eminence  in  history,  though  their 


8  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [490  B.C. 

renown  was  achieved  at  a  later  period  than  that  of  Miltiades, 
were  also  among  the  ten  Athenian  generals  at  Marathon.  One 
was  Themistocles,  the  future  founder  of  the  Athenian  navy 
and  the  destined  victor  of  Salamis ;  the  other  was  Aristides, 
who  afterwards  led  the  Athenian  troops  at  Plataea,  and  whose 
integrity  and  just  popularity  acquired  for  his  country,  when 
the  Persians  had  finally  been  repulsed,  the  advantageous  pre- 
eminence of  being  acknowledged  by  half  of  the  Greeks  as  their 
impartial  leader  and  protector.  It  is  not  recorded  what  part 
either  Themistocles  or  Aristides  took  in  the  debate  of  the 
council  of  war  at  Marathon.  But  from  the  character  of  The- 
mistocles, his  boldness,  and  his  intuitive  genius  for  extempo- 
rizing the  best  measures  in  every  emergency  (a  quality  which 
the  greatest  of  historians  ascribes  to  him  beyond  all  his  con- 
temporaries), we  may  well  believe  that  the  vote  of  Themisto- 
cles was  for  prompt  and  decisive  action.  On  the  vote  of  Aris- 
tides it  may  be  more  difficult  to  speculate.  His  predilection 
for  the  Spartans  may  have  made  him  wish  to  wait  till  they 
came  up ;  but,  though  circumspect,  he  was  neither  timid  as  a 
soldier  nor  as  a  politician ;  and  the  bold  advice  of  Miltiades 
may  probably  have  found  in  Aristides  a  willing,  most  assuredly 
it  found  in  him  a  candid,  hearer. 

Miltiades  felt  no  hesitation  as  to  the  course  which  the  Athe- 
nian army  ought  to  pursue ;  and  earnestly  did  he  press  his 
opinion  on  his  brother  generals.  Practically  acquainted  with 
the  organization  of  the  Persian  armies,  Miltiades  was  convinced 
of  the  superiority  of  the  Greek  troops  if  properly  handled  :  he 
saw  with  the  military  eye  of  a  great  general  the  advantage 
which  the  position  of  the  forces  gave  him  for  a  sudden  attack, 
and  as  a  profound  politician  he  felt  the  perils  of  remaining 
inactive,  and  of  giving  treachery  time  to  ruin  the  Athenian 
cause. 

One  officer  in  the  council  of  war  had  not  yet  voted.  This 
was  Callimachus,  the  War  Ruler.  The  votes  of  the  generals 
were  five  and  five,  so  that  the  voice  of  Callimachus  would  be 
decisive. 

On  that  vote,  in  all  human  probability,  the  destiny  of  all 
the  nations  of  the  world  depended.  Miltiades  turned  to  him, 
and  in  simple  soldierly  eloquence,  the  substance  of  which  we 
may  read  faithfully  reported  in  Herodotus,  who  had  conversed 


490  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   MARATHON  9 

with  the  veterans  of  Marathon,  the  great  Athenian  thus  ad- 
jured his  countryman  to  vote  for  giving  battle  :  — 

"  It  now  rests  with  you,  Callimachus,  either  to  enslave 
Athens,  or,  by  assuring  her  freedom,  to  win  yourself  an  im- 
mortality of  fame,  such  as  not  even  Harmodius  and  Aristo- 
geiton  have  acquired.  For  never,  since  the  Athenians  were 
a  people,  were  they  in  such  danger  as  they  are  in  at  this 
moment.  If  they  bow  the  knee  to  these  Medes,  they  are  to  be 
given  up  to  Hippias,  and  you  know  what  they  then  will  have 
to  suffer.  But  if  Athens  comes  victorious  out  of  this  contest, 
she  has  it  in  her  to  become  the  first  city  of  Greece.  Your 
vote  is  to  decide  whether  we  are  to  join  battle  or  not.  If  we 
do  not  bring  on  a  battle  presently,  some  factious  intrigue  will 
disunite  the  Athenians,  and  the  city  will  be  betrayed  to  the 
Medes.  But  if  we  fight  before  there  is  anything  rotten  in 
the  state  of  Athens,  I  believe  that,  provided  the  gods  will 
give  fair  play  and  no  favor,  we  are  able  to  get  the  best  of  it 
in  the  engagement." 

The  vote  of  the  brave  War  Ruler  was  gained ;  the  council 
determined  to  give  battle  ;  and  such  was  the  ascendency  and 
military  eminence  of  Miltiades  that  his  brother  generals,  one 
and  all,  gave  up  their  days  of  command  to  him,  and  cheer- 
fully acted  under  his  orders.  Fearful,  however,  of  creating 
any  jealousy,  and  of  so  failing  to  obtain  the  cooperation  of 
all  parts  of  his  small  army,  Miltiades  waited  till  the  day  when 
the  chief  command  would  have  come  round  to  him  in  regular 
rotation  before  he  led  the  troops  against  the  enemy. 

The  inaction  of  the  Asiatic  commanders  during  this  inter- 
val appears  strange  at  first  sight ;  but  Hippias  was  with  them, 
and  they  and  he  were  aware  of  their  chance  of  a  bloodless 
conquest  through  the  machinations  of  his  partisans  among 
the  Athenians.  The  nature  of  the  ground  also  explains,  in 
many  points,  the  tactics  of  the  opposite  generals  before  the 
battle,  as  well  as  the  operations  of  the  troops  during  the 
engagement. 

The  plain  of  Marathon,  which  is  about  twenty-two  miles 
distant  from  Athens,  lies  along  the  bay  of  the  same  name  on 
the  northeastern  coast  of  Attica.  The  plain  is  nearly  in  the 
form  of  a  crescent,  and  about  six  miles  in  length.  It  is  about 
two  miles  broad  in  the  center,  where  the  space  between  the 


10  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [490  B.C. 

mountains  and  the  sea  is  greatest,  but  it  narrows  towards 
either  extremity,  the  mountains  coming  close  down  to  the 
water  at  the  horns  of  the  bay.  There  is  a  valley  trending 
inwards  from  the  middle  of  the  plain,  and  a  ravine  comes 
down  to  it  to  the  southward.  Elsewhere  it  is  closely  girt 
round  on  the  land  side  by  rugged  limestone  mountains,  which 
are  thickly  studded  with  pines,  olive-trees,  and  cedars,  and  over- 
grown with  the  myrtle,  arbutus,  and  the  other  low  odoriferous 
shrubs  that  everywhere  perfume  the  Attic  air.  The  level  of 
the  ground  is  now  varied  by  the  mound  raised  over  those  who 
fell  in  the  battle,  but  it  was  an  unbroken  plain  when  the  Per- 
sians encamped  on  it.  There  are  marshes  at  each  end,  which 
are  dry  in  spring  and  summer,  and  then  offer  no  obstruction 
to  the  horseman,  but  are  commonly  flooded  with  rain,  and  so 
rendered  impracticable  for  cavalry,  in  the  autumn,  the  time 
of  year  at  which  the  action  took  place. 

The  Greeks,  lying  encamped  on  the  mountains,  could  watch 
every  movement  of  the  Persians  on  the  plain  below,  while  they 
were  enabled  completely  to  mask  their  own.  Miltiades  also 
had,  from  his  position,  the  power  of  giving  battle  whenever 
he  pleased,  or  of  delaying  it  at  his  discretion,  unless  Datis 
were  to  attempt  the  perilous  operation  of  storming  the  heights. 

If  we  turn  to  the  map  of  the  Old  World,  to  test  the  compara- 
tive territorial  resources  of  the  two  states  whose  armies  were 
now  about  to  come  into  conflict,  the  immense  preponderance 
of  the  material  power  of  the  Persian  king  over  that  of  the 
Athenian  republic  is  more  striking  than  any  similar  contrast 
which  history  can  supply.  It  has  been  truly  remarked,  that, 
in  estimating  mere  areas,  Attica,  containing  on  its  whole  sur- 
face only  seven  hundred  square  miles,  shrinks  into  insignifi- 
cance if  compared  with  many  a  baronial  fief  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  or  many  a  colonial  allotment  of  modern  times.  Its 
antagonist,  the  Persian  empire,  comprised  the  whole  of  modern 
Asiatic  and  much  of  modern  European  Turkey,  the  modern 
kingdom  of  Persia,  and  the  countries  of  modern  Georgia, 
Armenia,  Balkh,  the  Punjab,  Afghanistan,  Baluchistan, 
Egypt,  and  Tripoli. 

Nor  could  a  European,  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury before  our  era,  look  upon  this  huge  accumulation  of 
power  beneath  the  scepter  of  a  single  Asiatic  ruler  with  the 


49Q  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   MARATHON  1 1 

indifference  with  which  we  now  observe  on  the  map  the 
extensive  dominions  of  modern  Oriental  sovereigns.  For,  as 
has  been  already  remarked,  before  Marathon  was  fought  the 
prestige  of  success  and  of  supposed  superiority  of  race  was 
on  the  side  of  the  Asiatic  against  the  European.  Asia  was 
the  original  seat  of  human  societies  ;  and  long  before  any 
trace  can  be  found  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  rest  of  the  world 
having  emerged  from  the  rudest  barbarism,  we  can  perceive 
that  mighty  and  brilliant  empires  flourished  in  the  Asiatic 
continent.  They  appear  before  us  through  the  twilight  of 
primeval  history,  dim  and  indistinct,  but  massive  and  majes- 
tic, like  mountains  in  the  early  dawn. 

Instead,  however,  of  the  infinite  variety  and  restless  change 
which  have  characterized  the  institutions  and  fortunes  of 
European  states  ever  since  the  commencement  of  the  civili- 
zation of  our  continent,  a  monotonous  uniformity  pervades 
the  histories  of  nearly  all  Oriental  empires,  from  the  most 
ancient  down  to  the  most  recent  times.  They  are  character- 
ized by  the  rapidity  of  their  early  conquests ;  by  the  immense 
extent  of  the  dominions  comprised  in  them  ;  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  satrap  or  pasha  system  of  governing  the  prov- 
inces ;  by  an  invariable  and  speedy  degeneracy  in  the  princes 
of  the  royal  house,  the  effeminate  nurslings  of  the  seraglio 
succeeding  to  the  warrior  sovereigns  reared  in  the  camp  ;  and 
by  the  internal  anarchy  and  insurrections  which  indicate  and 
accelerate  the  decline  and  fall  of  these  unwieldy  and  ill-organ- 
ized fabrics  of  power.  It  is  also  a  striking  fact  that  the 
governments  of  all  the  great  Asiatic  empires  have  in  all  ages 
been  absolute  despotisms.  And  Heeren  is  right  in  connect- 
ing this  with  another  great  fact,  which  is  important  from  its 
influence  both  on  the  political  and  the  social  life  of  Asiatics : 
"Among  all  the  considerable  nations  of  Inner  Asia,  the 
paternal  government  of  every  household  was  corrupted  by 
polygamy  ;  where  that  custom  exists,  a  good  political  consti- 
tution is  impossible.  Fathers  being  converted  into  domestic 
despots,  are  ready  to  pay  the  same  abject  obedience  to  their 
sovereign  which  they  exact  from  their  family  and  dependents 
in  their  domestic  economy."  We  should  bear  in  mind  also 
the  inseparable  connection  between  the  state  religion  and  all 
legislation,  which  has  always  prevailed  in  the  East,  and  the 


12  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [490  B.C. 

constant  existence  of  a  powerful  sacerdotal  body,  exercising 
some  check,  though  precarious  and  irregular,  over  the  throne 
itself,  grasping  at  all  civil  administration,  claiming  the  su- 
preme control  of  education,  stereotyping  the  lines  in  which 
literature  and  science  must  move,  and  limiting  the  extent  to 
which  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  human  mind  to  prosecute  its 
inquiries. 

With  these  general  characteristics  rightly  felt  and  under- 
stood, it  becomes  a  comparatively  easy  task  to  investigate  and 
appreciate  the  origin,  progress,  and  principles  of  Oriental 
empires  in  general,  as  well  as  of  the  Persian  monarchy  in 
particular.  And  we  are  thus  better  enabled  to  appreciate 
the  repulse  which  Greece  gave  to  the  arms  of  the  East,  and 
to  judge  of  the  probable  consequences  to  human  civilization 
if  the  Persians  had  succeeded  in  bringing  Europe  under  their 
yoke,  as  they  had  already  subjugated  the  fairest  portions  of 
the  rest  of  the  then  known  world. 

The  Greeks,  from  their  geographical  position,  formed  the 
natural  vanguard  of  European  liberty  against  Persian  ambi- 
tion ;  and  they  preeminently  displayed  the  salient  points  of 
distinctive  national  character,  which  have  rendered  European 
civilization  so  far  superior  to  Asiatic.  The  nations  that 
dwelt  in  ancient  times  around  and  near  the  northern  shores 
of  the  Mediterranean  Sea  were  the  first  in  our  continent  to 
receive  from  the  East  the  rudiments  of  art  and  literature,  and 
the  germs  of  social  and  political  organization.  Of  these 
nations,  the  Greeks,  through  their  vicinity  to  Asia  Minor, 
Phoenicia,  and  Egypt,  were  among  the  very  foremost  in 
acquiring  the  principles  and  habits  of  civilized  life ;  and  they 
also  at  once  imparted  a  new  and  wholly  original  stamp  on  all 
which  they  received.  Thus,  in  their  religion  they  received 
from  foreign  settlers  the  names  of  all  their  deities  and  many 
of  their  rites,  but  they  discarded  the  loathsome  monstrosities 
of  the  Nile,  the  Orontes,  and  the  Ganges  :  they  nationalized 
their  creed;  and  their  own  poets  created  their  beautiful 
mythology.  No  sacerdotal  caste  ever  existed  in  Greece.  So, 
in  their  governments  they  lived  long  under  hereditary  kings, 
but  never  endured  the  permanent  establishment  of  absolute 
monarchy.  Their  early  kings  were  constitutional  rulers, 
governing  with  defined  prerogatives.     And  long  before  the 


490  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   MARATHON  13 

Persian  invasion  the  kingly  form  of  government  had  given 
way  in  almost  all  the  Greek  states  to  republican  institutions, 
presenting  infinite  varieties  of  the  balancing  or  the  alternate 
predominance  of  the  oligarchical  and  democratical  principles. 
In  literature  and  science  the  Greek  intellect  followed  no 
beaten  track,  and  acknowledged  no  limitary  rules.  The 
Greeks  thought  their  subjects  boldly  out ;  and  the  novelty  of 
a  speculation  invested  it  in  their  minds  with  interest,  and  not 
with  criminality.  Versatile,  restless,  enterprising,  and  self- 
confident,  the  Greeks  presented  the  most  striking  contrast  to 
the  habitual  quietude  and  submissiveness  of  the  Orientals. 
And,  of  all  the  Greeks,  the  Athenians  exhibited  these  na- 
tional characteristics  in  the  strongest  degree.  This  spirit  of 
activity  and  daring,  joined  to  a  generous  sympathy  for  the 
fate  of  their  fellow  Greeks  in  Asia,  had  led  them  to  join  in 
the  last  Ionian  war;  and  now,  mingling  with  their  abhor- 
rence of  the  usurping  family  of  their  own  citizens,  which  for 
a  period  had  forcibly  seized  on  and  exercised  despotic  power 
at  Athens,  it  nerved  them  to  defy  the  wrath  of  King  Darius, 
and  to  refuse  to  receive  back  at  his  bidding  the  tyrant  whom 
they  had  some  years  before  driven  from  their  land. 

The  enterprise  and  genius  of  an  Englishman  have  lately 
confirmed  by  fresh  evidence,  and  invested  with  fresh  interest, 
the  might  of  the  Persian  monarch,  who  sent  his  troops  to 
combat  at  Marathon.  Inscriptions  in  a  character  termed  the 
Arrow-headed,  or  Cuneiform,  had  long  been  known  to  exist 
on  the  marble  monuments  at  Persepolis,  near  the  site  of  the 
ancient  Susa,  and  on  the  faces  of  rocks  in  other  places  for- 
merly ruled  over  by  the  early  Persian  kings.  But  for  thou- 
sands of  years  they  had  been  mere  unintelligible  enigmas  to 
the  curious  but  baffled  beholder ;  and  they  were  often  referred 
to  as  instances  of  the  folly  of  human  pride,  which  could  in- 
deed write  its  own  praise  in  the  solid  rock,  but  only  for  the 
rock  to  outlive  the  language  as  well  as  the  memory  of  the 
vainglorious  inscribers.  The  elder  Niebuhr,  Grotefend,  and 
Lassen  had  made  some  guesses  at  the  meaning  of  the  Cunei- 
form letters ;  but  Major  Rawlinson,  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany's service,  after  years  of  labor,  has  at  last  accomplished 
the  glorious  achievement  of  fully  revealing  the  alphabet  and 
the  grammar  of  this  long  unknown  tongue.     He  has,  in  par- 


14  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [490  B.C. 

ticular,  fully  deciphered  and  expounded  the  inscriptions  on 
the  sacred  rock  of  Behistun,  on  the  western  frontiers  of 
Media.  These  records  of  the  Achaemenidae  have  at  length 
found  their  interpreter;  and  Darius  himself  speaks  to  us  from 
the  consecrated  mountain,  and  tells  us  the  names  of  the 
nations  that  obeyed  him,  the  revolts  that  he  suppressed,  his 
victories,  his  piety,  and  his  glory. 

Kings  who  thus  seek  the  admiration  of  posterity  are  little 
likely  to  dim  the  record  of  their  successes  by  the  mention  of 
their  occasional  defeats ;  and  it  throws  no  suspicion  on  the 
narrative  of  the  Greek  historians  that  we  find  these  inscrip- 
tions respecting  the  overthrow  of  Datis  and  Artaphernes,  as 
well  as  respecting  the  reverses  which  Darius  sustained  in  per- 
son during  his  Scythian  campaigns.  But  these  indisputable 
monuments  of  Persian  fame  confirm,  and  even  increase,  the 
opinion  with  which  Herodotus  inspires  us,  of  the  vast  power 
which  Cyrus  founded  and  Cambyses  increased ;  which  Darius 
augmented  by  Indian  and  Arabian  conquests,  and  seemed 
likely,  when  he  directed  his  arms  against  Europe,  to  make 
the  predominant  monarchy  of  the  world. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Chinese  empire,  in  which,  through- 
out all  ages  down  to  the  last  few  years,  one  third  of  the 
human  race  has  dwelt  almost  unconnected  with  the  other 
portions,  all  the  great  kingdoms  which  we  know  to  have  ex- 
isted in  ancient  Asia  were,  in  Darius's  time,  blended  with  the 
Persian.  The  northern  Indians,  the  Assyrians,  the  Syrians, 
the  Babylonians,  the  Chaldees,  the  Phoenicians,  the  nations 
of  Palestine,  the  Armenians,  the  Bactrians,  the  Lydians,  the 
Phrygians,  the  Parthians,  and  the  Medes  —  all  obeyed  the 
scepter  of  the  Great  King ;  the  Medes  standing  next  to 
the  native  Persians  in  honor,  and  the  empire  being  frequently 
spoken  of  as  that  of  the  Medes,  or  that  of  the  Medes  and  Per- 
sians. Egypt  and  Cyrene  were  Persian  provinces  ;  the  Greek 
colonists  in  Asia  Minor  and  the  islands  of  the  yEgean  were 
Darius's  subjects;  and  their  gallant  but  unsuccessful  attempts 
to  throw  off  the  Persian  yoke  had  only  served  to  rivet  it  more 
strongly,  and  to  increase  the  general  belief  that  the  Greeks 
could  not  stand  before  the  Persians  in  a  field  of  battle.  Da- 
rius's Scythian  war,  though  unsuccessful  in  its  immediate 
object,  had  brought  about  the  subjugation  of  Thrace  and  the 


49QB.C]  BATTLE   OF   MARATHON  1 5 

submission  of  Macedonia.     From  the  Indus  to  the  Peneus, 
all  was  his. 

We  may  imagine  the  wrath  with  which  the  lord  of  so  many 
nations  must  have  heard,  nine  years  before  the  battle  of 
Marathon,  that  a  strange  nation  towards  the  setting  sun, 
called  the  Athenians,  had  dared  to  help  his  rebels  in  Ionia 
against  him,  and  that  they  had  plundered  and  burned  the 
capital  of  one  of  his  provinces.  Before  the  burning  of  Sardis, 
Darius  seems  never  to  have  heard  of  the  existence  of  Athens ; 
but  his  satraps  in  Asia  Minor  had  for  some  time  seen  Athe- 
nian refugees  at  their  provincial  courts  imploring  assistance 
against  their  fellow  countrymen.  When  Hippias  was  driven 
away  from  Athens,  and  the  tyrannic  dynasty  of  the  Pisistra- 
tidae  finally  overthrown  in  510  B.C.,  the  banished  tyrant  and 
his  adherents,  after  vainly  seeking  to  be  restored  by  Spartan 
intervention,  had  betaken  themselves  to  Sardis,  the  capital 
city  of  the  satrapy  of  Artaphernes.  There  Hippias  (in  the 
expressive  words  of  Herodotus)  began  every  kind  of  agitation, 
slandering  the  Athenians  before  Artaphernes,  and  doing  all 
he  could  to  induce  the  satrap  to  place  Athens  in  subjection 
to  him,  as  the  tributary  vassal  of  King  Darius.  When  the 
Athenians  heard  his  practises,  they  sent  envoys  to  Sardis  to 
remonstrate  with  the  Persians  against  taking  up  the  quarrel 
of  the  Athenian  refugees.  But  Artaphernes  gave  them  in 
reply  a  menacing  command  to  receive  Hippias  back  again  if 
they  looked  for  safety.  The  Athenians  were  resolved  not 
to  purchase  safety  at  such  a  price;  and  after  rejecting  the 
satrap's  terms,  they  considered  that  they  and  the  Persians 
were  declared  enemies.  At  this  very  crisis  the  Ionian  Greeks 
implored  the  assistance  of  their  European  brethren,  to  enable 
them  to  recover  their  independence  from  Persia.  Athens, 
and  the  city  of  Eretria  in  Eubcea,  alone  consented.  Twenty 
Athenian  galleys,  and  five  Eretrian,  crossed  the  JEgcan  Sea ; 
and  by  a  bold  and  sudden  march  upon  Sardis  the  Athenians 
and  their  allies  succeeded  in  capturing  the  capital  city  of  the 
haughty  satrap,  who  had  recently  menaced  them  with  servi- 
tude or  destruction.  The  Persian  forces  were  soon  rallied, 
and  the  Greeks  were  compelled  to  retire.  They  were  pur- 
sued, and  defeated  on  their  return  to  the  coast,  and  Athens 
took  no  further  part  in  the  Ionian  war.     But  the  insult  that 


16  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [490  B.C. 

she  had  put  upon  the  Persian  power  was  speedily  made 
known  throughout  that  empire,  and  was  never  to  be  forgiven 
or  forgotten.  In  the  emphatic  simplicity  of  the  narrative  of 
Herodotus,  the  wrath  of  the  Great  King  is  thus  described : 
"Now  when  it  was  told  to  King  Darius  that  Sardis  had  been 
taken  and  burned  by  the  Athenians  and  Ionians,  he  took  small 
heed  of  the  Ionians,  well  knowing  who  they  were,  and  that 
their  revolt  would  soon  be  put  down ;  but  he  asked  who,  and 
what  manner  of  men,  the  Athenians  were.  And  when  he  had 
been  told,  he  called  for  his  bow ;  and,  having  taken  it,  and  placed 
an  arrow  on  the  string,  he  let  the  arrow  fly  towards  heaven ;  and 
as  he  shot  it  into  the  air,  he  said,  '  O  Supreme  God  !  grant  me 
that  I  may  avenge  myself  on  the  Athenians.'  And  when  he 
had  said  this,  he  appointed  one  of  his  servants  to  say  to  him 
every  day  as  he  sat  at  meat,  '  Sire,  remember  the  Athenians.'  " 
Some  years  were  occupied  in  the  complete  reduction  of 
Ionia.  But  when  this  was  effected,  Darius  ordered  his  victo- 
rious forces  to  proceed  to  punish  Athens  and  Eretria,  and  to 
conquer  European  Greece.  The  first  armament  sent  for  this 
purpose  was  shattered  by  shipwreck,  and  nearly  destroyed 
off  Mount  Athos.  But  the  purpose  of  King  Darius  was  not 
easily  shaken.  A  larger  army  was  ordered  to  be  collected  in 
Cilicia  :  and  requisitions  were  sent  to  all  the  maritime  cities  of 
the  Persian  empire  for  ships  of  war,  and  for  transports  of 
sufficient  size  for  carrying  cavalry  as  well  as  infantry  across 
the  ^Egean.  While  these  preparations  were  being  made, 
Darius  sent  heralds  round  to  the  Grecian  cities  demanding 
their  submission  to  Persia.  It  was  proclaimed  in  the  market- 
place of  each  little  Hellenic  state  (some  with  territories  not 
larger  than  the  Isle  of  Wight),  that  King  Darius,  the  lord  of 
all  men,  from  the  rising  to  the  setting  sun,4  required  earth  and 
water  to  be  delivered  to  his  heralds,  as  a  symbolical  acknowl- 
edgment that  he  was  head  and  master  of  the  country.  Terror- 
stricken  at  the  power  of  Persia  and  at  the  severe  punishment 
that  had  recently  been  inflicted  on  the  refractory  Ionians, 
many  of  the  Continental  Greeks  and  nearly  all  the  islanders 
submitted,  and  gave  the  required  tokens  of  vassalage.  At 
Sparta  and  Athens  an  indignant  refusal  was  returned :  a  re- 
fusal which  was  disgraced  by  outrage  and  violence  against 
the  persons  of  the  Asiatic  heralds. 


49QB.C]  BATTLE    OF    MARATHON  17 

Fresh  fuel  was  thus  added  to  the  anger  of  Darius  against 
Athens,  and  the  Persian  preparations  went  on  with  renewed 
vigor.  In  the  summer  of  490  B.C.,  the  army  destined  for  the 
invasion  was  assembled  in  the  Aleian  plain  of  Cilicia,  near  the 
sea.  A  fleet  of  six  hundred  galleys  and  numerous  transports 
was  collected  on  the  coast  for  the  embarkation  of  troops, 
horse  as  well  as  foot.  A  Median  general  named  Datis,  and 
Artaphernes,  the  son  of  the  satrap  of  Sardis,  and  who  was 
also  nephew  of  Darius,  were  placed  in  titular  joint  command 
of  the  expedition.  That  the  real  supreme  authority  was  given 
to  Datis  alone  is  probable,  from  the  way  in  which  the  Greek 
writers  speak  of  him.  We  know  no  details  of  the  previous 
career  of  this  officer ;  but  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that 
his  abilities  and  bravery  had  been  proved  by  experience,  or 
his  Median  birth  would  have  prevented  his  being  placed  in 
high  command  by  Darius.  He  appears  to  have  been  the  first 
Mede  who  was  thus  trusted  by  the  Persian  kings  after  the 
overthrow  of  the  conspiracy  of  the  Median  Magi  against  the 
Persians  immediately  before  Darius  obtained  the  throne. 
Datis  received  instructions  to  complete  the  subjugation  of 
Greece,  and  especial  orders  were  given  him  with  regard  to 
Eretria  and  Athens.  He  was  to  take  these  two  cities ;  and 
he  was  to  lead  the  inhabitants  away  captive,  and  bring  them 
as  slaves  into  the  presence  of  the  Great  King. 

Datis  embarked  his  forces  in  the  fleet  that  awaited  them ; 
and  coasting  along  the  shores  of  Asia  Minor  till  he  was  off 
Samos,  he  thence  sailed  due  westward  through  the  yEgean 
Sea  for  Greece,  taking  the  islands  in  his  way.  The  Naxians 
had,  ten  years  before,  successfully  stood  a  siege  against  a 
Persian  armament,  but  they  now  were  too  terrified  to  offer 
any  resistance,  and  fled  to  the  mountain  tops,  while  the  enemy 
burned  their  town  and  laid  waste  their  lands.  Thence  Datis, 
compelling  the  Greek  islanders  to  join  him  with  their  ships 
and  men,  sailed  onward  to  the  coast  of  Euboea.  The  little 
town  of  Carystus  essayed  resistance,  but  was  quickly  over- 
powered. He  next  attacked  Eretria.  The  Athenians  sent 
four  thousand  men  to  its  aid.  But  treachery  was  at  work 
among  the  Eretrians  ;  and  the  Athenian  force  received  timely 
warning  from  one  of  the  leading  men  of  the  city  to  retire  to 
aid  in  saving  their  own  country,  instead  of  remaining  to  share 


18  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [490  b.c. 

in  the  ^inevitable  destruction  of  Eretria.  Left  to  themselves, 
the  Eretrians  repulsed  the  assault  of  the  Persians  against  their 
walls  for  six  days  ;  on  the  seventh  day  they  were  betrayed  by 
two  of  their  chiefs,  and  the  Persians  occupied  the  city.  The 
temples  were  burned  in  revenge  for  the  burning  of  Sardis,  and 
the  inhabitants  were  bound  and  placed  as  prisoners  in  the 
neighboring  islet  of  ^Egylia,  to  wait  there  till  Datis  should 
bring  the  Athenians  to  join  them  in  captivity,  when  both 
populations  were  to  be  led  into  Upper  Asia,  there  to  learn 
their  doom  from  the  lips  of  King  Darius  himself. 

Flushed  with  success,  and  with  half  his  mission  thus  accom- 
plished, Datis  reembarked  his  troops,  and,  crossing  the  little 
channel  that  separates  Euboea  from  the  mainland,  he  en- 
camped his  troops  on  the  Attic  coast  at  Marathon,  drawing 
up  his  galleys  on  the  shelving  beach,  as  was  the  custom  with 
the  navies  of  antiquity.  The  conquered  islands  behind  him 
served  as  places  of  deposit  for  his  provisions  and  military 
stores.  His  position  at  Marathon  seemed  to  him  in  every 
respect  advantageous ;  and  the  level  nature  of  the  ground  on 
which  he  camped  was  favorable  for  the  employment  of  his 
cavalry,  if  the  Athenians  should  venture  to  engage  him. 
Hippias,  who  accompanied  him,  and  acted  as  the  guide  of  the 
invaders,  had  pointed  out  Marathon  as  the  best  place  for  a 
landing,  for  this  very  reason.  Probably  Hippias  was  also  in- 
fluenced by  the  recollection  that  forty-seven  years  previously 
he,  with  his  father  Pisistratus,  had  crossed  with  an  army  from 
Eretria  to  Marathon,  and  had  won  an  easy  victory  over  their 
Athenian  enemies  on  that  very  plain,  which  had  restored 
them  to  tyrannic  power.  The  omen  seemed  cheering.  The 
place  was  the  same  ;  but  Hippias  soon  learned  to  his  cost  how 
great  a  change  had  come  over  the  spirit  of  the  Athenians. 

But  though  "the  fierce  democracy"  of  Athens  was  zealous 
and  true  against  foreign  invader  and  domestic  tyrant,  a  faction 
existed  in  Athens,  as  at  Eretria,  of  men  willing  to  purchase  a 
party  triumph  over  their  fellow  citizens  at  the  price  of  their 
country's  ruin.  Communications  were  opened  between  these 
men  and  the  Persian  camp,  which  would  have  led  to  a  catas- 
trophe like  that  of  Eretria,  if  Miltiades  had  not  resolved,  and 
had  not  persuaded  his  colleagues  to  resolve,  on  fighting  at  all 
hazards. 


490  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   MARATHON  19 

When  Miltiades  arrayed  his  men  for  action,  he  staked  on 
the  arbitrament  of  one  battle  not  only  the  fate  of  Athens,  but 
that  of  all  Greece ;  for  if  Athens  had  fallen,  no  other  Greek 
state,  except  Lacedaemon,  would  have  had  the  courage  to 
resist ;  and  the  Lacedaemonians,  though  they  would  probably 
have  died  in  their  ranks  to  the  last  man,  never  could  have 
successfully  resisted  the  victorious  Persians  and  the  numerous 
Greek  troops  which  would  have  soon  marched  under  the  Per- 
sian satraps  had  they  prevailed  over  Athens. 

Nor  was  there  any  power  to  the  westward  of  Greece  that 
could  have  offered  an  effectual  opposition  to  Persia  had  she 
once  conquered  Greece  and  made  that  country  a  basis  for 
future  military  operations.  Rome  was  at  this  time  in  her  sea- 
son of  utmost  weakness.  Her  dynasty  of  powerful  Etruscan 
kings  had  been  driven  out,  and  her  infant  commonwealth 
was  reeling  under  the  attacks  of  the  Etruscans  and  Volscians 
from  without,  and  the  fierce  dissensions  between  the  patri- 
cians and  plebeians  w  chin.  Etruria,  with  her  Lucumos  and 
serfs,  was  no  match  for  Persia.  Samnium  had  not  grown 
into  the  might  which  she  afterwards  put  forth  ;  nor  could 
the  Greek  colonies  in  South  Italy  and  Sicily  hope  to  survive 
when  their  parent  states  had  perished.  Carthage  had  escaped 
the  Persian  yoke  in  the  time  of  Cambyses,  through  the  reluc- 
tance of  the  Phoenician  mariners  to  serve  against  their  kins- 
men. But  such  forbearance  could  not  long  have  been  relied 
on,  and  the  future  rival  of  Rome  would  have  become  as  sub- 
missive a  minister  of  the  Persian  power  as  were  the  Phoeni- 
cian cities  themselves.  If  we  turn  to  Spain,  or  if  we  pass  the 
great  mountain  chain  which,  prolonged  through  the  Pyrenees, 
theCevennes,  the  Alps,  and  the  Balkans,  divides  Northern  from 
Southern  Europe,  we  shall  find  nothing  at  that  period  but 
mere  savage  Finns,  Celts,  Slaves,  and  Teutons.  Had  Persia 
beaten  Athens  at  Marathon,  she  could  have  found  no  obsta- 
cle to  prevent  Darius,  the  chosen  servant  of  Ormuzd,  from 
advancing  his  sway  over  all  the  known  Western  races  of 
mankind.  The  infant  energies  of  Europe  would  have  been 
trodden  out  beneath  universal  conquest ;  and  the  history  of 
the  world,  like  the  history  of  Asia,  would  have  become  a 
mere  record  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  despotic  dynasties,  of  the 
incursions  of  barbarous  hordes,  and  of  the  mental  and  politi- 


20  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [490  B.C. 

cal  prostration  of  millions  beneath  the  diadem,  the  tiara,  and 
the  sword. 

Great  as  the  preponderance  of  the  Persian  over  the  Athe- 
nian power  at  that  crisis  seems  to  have  been,  it  would  be 
unjust  to  impute  wild  rashness  to  the  policy  of  Miltiades,  and 
those  who  voted  with  him  in  the  Athenian  council  of  war,  or 
to  look  on  the  after  current  of  events  as  the  mere  result  of 
successful  indiscretion.  As  before  has  been  remarked,  Mil- 
tiades, while  prince  of  the  Chersonese,  had  seen  service  in  the 
Persian  armies ;  and  he  knew  by  personal  observation  how 
many  elements  of  weakness  lurked  beneath  their  imposing 
aspect  of  strength.  He  knew  that  the  bulk  of  their  troops 
no  longer  consisted  of  the  hardy  shepherds  and  mountaineers 
from  Persia  proper  and  Kurdistan,  who  won  Cyrus's  battles : 
but  that  unwilling  contingents  from  conquered  nations  now 
largely  filled  up  the  Persian  muster-rolls,  fighting  more  from 
compulsion  than  from  any  zeal  in  the  cause  of  their  masters. 
He  had  also  the  sagacity  and  the  spirit  to  appreciate  the 
superiority  of  the  Greek  armor  and  organization  over  the 
Asiatic,  notwithstanding  former  reverses.  Above  all,  he  felt 
and  worthily  trusted  the  enthusiasm  of  the  men  under  his 
command. 

The  Athenians,  whom  he  led,  had  proved  by  their  new- 
born valor  in  recent  wars  against  the  neighboring  states,  that 
"  Liberty  and  Equality  of  civic  rights  are  brave,  spirit-stirring 
things ;  and  they  who,  while  under  the  yoke  of  a  despot,  had 
been  no  better  men  of  war  than  any  of  their  neighbors,  as 
soon  as  they  were  free,  became  the  foremost  men  of  all ;  for 
each  felt  that  in  fighting  for  a  free  commonwealth  he  fought 
for  himself,  and,  whatever  he  took  in  hand,  he  was  zealous  to 
do  the  work  thoroughly."  So  the  nearly  contemporaneous 
historian  describes  the  change  of  spirit  that  was  seen  in  the 
Athenians  after  their  tyrants  were  expelled ;  and  Miltiades 
knew  that  in  leading  them  against  the  invading  army,  where 
they  had  Hippias,  the  foe  they  most  hated,  before  them, 
he  was  bringing  into  battle  no  ordinary  men,  and  could 
calculate  on  no  ordinary  heroism.  As  for  traitors,  he  was 
sure  that,  whatever  treachery  might  lurk  among  some  of  the 
higher-born  and  wealthier  Athenians,  the  rank  and  file  whom 
he  commanded  were  ready  to  do  their  utmost  in  his  and  their 


490  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   MARATHON  21 

own  cause.  With  regard  to  future  attacks  from  Asia,  he 
might  reasonably  hope  that  one  victory  would  inspirit  all 
Greece  to  combine  against  the  common  foe ;  and  that  the 
latent  seeds  of  revolt  and  disunion  in  the  Persian  empire 
would  soon  burst  forth  and  paralyze  its  energies,  so  as  to 
leave  Greek  independence  secure. 

With  these  hopes  and  risks,  Miltiades,  on  the  afternoon  of 
a  September  day,  490  B.C.,  gave  the  word  for  the  Athenian 
army  to  prepare  for  battle.  There  were  many  local  associa- 
tions connected  with  those  mountain  heights  which  were  cal- 
culated powerfully  to  excite  the  spirits  of  the  men,  and  of 
which  the  commanders  well  knew  how  to  avail  themselves 
in  their  exhortations  to  their  troops  before  the  encounter. 
Marathon  itself  was  a  region  sacred  to  Hercules.  Close  to 
them  was  the  fountain  of  Macaria,  who  had  in  days  of  yore 
devoted  herself  to  death  for  the  liberty  of  her  people.  The 
very  plain  on  which  they  were  to  fight  was  the  scene  of  the 
exploits  of  their  national  hero,  Theseus  ;  and  there,  too,  as  old 
legends  told,  the  Athenians  and  the  Heraclidae  had  routed  the 
invader,  Eurystheus.  These  traditions  were  not  mere  cloudy 
myths  or  idle  fictions,  but  matters  of  implicit,  earnest  faith  to 
the  men  of  that  day ;  and  many  a  fervent  prayer  arose  from 
the  Athenian  ranks  to  the  heroic  spirits  who,  while  on  earth, 
had  striven  and  suffered  on  that  very  spot,  and  who  were  be- 
lieved to  be  now  heavenly  powers,  looking  down  with  interest 
on  their  still  beloved  country,  and  capable  of  interposing  with 
superhuman  aid  in  its  behalf. 

According  to  old  national  custom,  the  warriors  of  each  tribe 
were  arrayed  together ;  neighbor  thus  fighting  by  the  side  of 
neighbor,  friend  by  friend,  and  the  spirit  of  emulation  and  the 
consciousness  of  responsibility  excited  to  the  very  utmost. 
The  War  Ruler,  Callimachus,  had  the  leading  of  the  right 
wing ;  the  Plataeans  formed  the  extreme  left ;  and  Themis- 
tocles  and  Aristides  commanded  the  center.  The  line  con- 
sisted of  the  heavy-armed  spearmen  only.  For  the  Greeks 
(until  the  time  of  Iphicrates)  took  little  or  no  account  of  light- 
armed  soldiers  in  a  pitched  battle,  using  them  only  in  skir- 
mishes or  for  the  pursuit  of  a  defeated  enemy.  The  panoply 
of  the  regular  infantry  consisted  of  a  long  spear,  of  a  shield, 
and  of  helmet,  breastplate,  greaves,  and  short  sword.     Thus 


22  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [490  B.C. 

equipped,  they  usually  advanced  slowly  and  steadily  into 
action  in  a  uniform  phalanx  of  about  eight  spears  deep.  But 
the  military  genius  of  Miltiades  led  him  to  deviate  on  this 
occasion  from  the  commonplace  tactics  of  his  countrymen. 
It  was  essential  for  him  to  extend  his  line  so  as  to  cover  all 
the  practicable  ground,  and  to  secure  himself  from  being  out- 
flanked and  charged  in  the  rear  by  the  Persian  horse.  This 
extension  involved  the  weakening  of  his  line.  Instead  of  a 
uniform  reduction  of  its  strength,  he  determined  on  detaching 
principally  from  his  center,  which,  from  the  nature  of  the 
ground,  would  have  the  best  opportunities  for  rallying  if 
broken ;  and  on  strengthening  his  wings,  so  as  to  insure 
advantage  at  those  points ;  and  he  trusted  to  his  own  skill, 
and  to  his  soldiers'  discipline,  for  the  improvement  of  that 
advantage  into  decisive  victory.5 

In  this  order,  and  availing  himself  probably  of  the  inequali- 
ties of  the  ground,  so  as  to  conceal  his  preparations  from  the 
enemy  till  the  last  possible  moment,  Miltiades  drew  up  the 
eleven  thousand  infantry  whose  spears  were  to  decide  this  crisis 
in  the  struggle  between  the  European  and  the  Asiatic  worlds. 
The  sacrifices  by  which  the  favor  of  Heaven  was  sought,  and 
its  will  consulted,  were  announced  to  show  propitious  omens. 
The  trumpet  sounded  for  action,  and,  chanting  the  hymn  of 
battle,  the  little  army  bore  down  upon  the  host  of  the  foe. 
Then,  too,  along  the  mountain  slopes  of  Marathon  must  have 
resounded  the  mutual  exhortation  which  yEschylus,  who 
fought  in  both  battles,  tells  us  was  afterwards  heard  over 
the  waves  of  Salamis  —  "  On,  sons  of  the  Greeks  !  Strike  for 
the  freedom  of  your  country  !  strike  for  the  freedom  of  your 
children  and  of  your  wives  —  for  the  shrines  of  your  fathers' 
gods,  and  for  the  sepulchers  of  your  sires.  All  —  all  are  now 
staked  upon  the  strife  !  " 

Instead  of  advancing  at  the  usual  slow  pace  of  the  pha- 
lanx, Miltiades  brought  his  men  on  at  a  run.  They  were  all 
trained  in  the  exercises  of  the  palestra,  so  that  there  was  no 
fear  of  their  ending  the  charge  in  breathless  exhaustion ;  and 
it  was  of  the  deepest  importance  for  him  to  traverse  as 
rapidly  as  possible  the  space  of  about  a  mile  of  level  ground 
that  lay  between  the  mountain  foot  and  the  Persian  outposts, 
and  so  to  get  his  troops  into  close  action  before  the  Asiatic 


49Q  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   MARATHON  23 

cavalry  could  mount,  form,  and  maneuver  against  him,  or 
their  archers  keep  him  long  under  bow-shot,  and  before  the 
enemy's  generals  could  fairly  deploy  their  masses. 

"When  the  Persians,"  says  Herodotus,  "saw  the  Athenians 
running  down  on  them,  without  horse  or  bowmen,  and  scanty 
in  numbers,  they  thought  them  a  set  of  madmen  rushing 
upon  certain  destruction."  They  began,  however,  to  prepare 
to  receive  them,  and  the  Eastern  chiefs  arrayed,  as  quickly 
as  time  and  place  allowed,  the  varied  races  who  served  in 
their  motley  ranks.  Mountaineers  from  Hyrcania  and 
Afghanistan,  wild  horsemen  from  the  steppes  of  Khorassan, 
the  black  archers  of  Ethiopia,  swordsmen  from  the  banks  of 
the  Indus,  the  Oxus,  the  Euphrates,  and  the  Nile,  made 
ready  against  the  enemies  of  the  Great  King.  But  no 
national  cause  inspired  them,  except  the  division  of  native 
Persians ;  and  in  the  large  host  there  was  no  uniformity  of 
language,  creed,  race,  or  military  system.  Still,  among  them 
there  were  many  gallant  men,  under  a  veteran  general ;  they 
were  familiarized  with  victory ;  and  in  contemptuous  con- 
fidence their  infantry,  which  alone  had  time  to  form,  awaited 
the  Athenian  charge.  On  came  the  Greeks,  with  one  un- 
wavering line  of  leveled  spears,  against  which  the  light 
targets,  the  short  lances,  and  the  simitars  of  the  Orientals 
offered  weak  defense.  The  front  rank  of  the  Asiatics  must 
have  gone  down  to  a  man  at  the  first  shock.  Still  they  re- 
coiled not,  but  strove  by  individual  gallantry,  and  by  the 
weight  of  numbers,  to  make  up  for  the  disadvantages  of 
weapons  and  tactics,  and  to  bear  back  the  shallow  line  of  the 
Europeans.  In  the  center,  where  the  native  Persians  and 
Sacae  fought,  they  succeeded  in  breaking  through  the  weaker 
part  of  the  Athenian  phalanx  ;  and  the  tribes  led  by  Aristides 
and  Themistocles  were,  after  a  brave  resistance,  driven  back 
over  the  plain,  and  chased  by  the  Persians  up  the  valley 
towards  the  inner  country.  There  the  nature  of  the  ground 
gave  the  opportunity  of  rallying  and  renewing  the  struggle ; 
and,  meanwhile,  the  Greek  wings,  where  Miltiades  had  con- 
centrated his  chief  strength,  had  routed  the  Asiatics  opposed 
to  them ;  and  the  Athenian  and  Plataean  officers,  instead  of 
pursuing  the  fugitives,  kept  their  troops  well  in  hand,  and 
wheeling  round  they  formed  the  two  wings  together.     Miltia- 


24  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [490  B.C. 

des  instantly  led  them  against  the  Persian  center,  which  had 
hitherto  been  triumphant,  but  which  now  fell  back  and  pre- 
pared to  encounter  these  new  and  unexpected  assailants. 
Aristides  and  Themistocles  renewed  the  fight  with  their  re- 
organized troops,  and  the  full  force  of  the  Greeks  was  brought 
into  close  action  with  the  Persian  and  Sacian  divisions  of 
the  enemy.  Datis's  veterans  strove  hard  to  keep  their 
ground,  and  evening6  was  approaching  before  the  stern  en- 
counter was  decided. 

But  the  Persians,  with  their  slight  wicker  shields,  destitute 
of  body  armor,  and  never  taught  by  training  to  keep  the  even 
front  and  act  with  the  regular  movement  of  the  Greek 
infantry,  fought  at  grievous  disadvantage  with  their  shorter 
and  feebler  weapons  against  the  compact  array  of  well-armed 
Athenian  and  Plataean  spearmen,  all  perfectly  drilled  to  per- 
form each  necessary  evolution  in  concert,  and  to  preserve  a 
uniform  and  unwavering  line  in  battle.  In  personal  courage 
and  in  bodily  activity  the  Persians  were  not  inferior  to  their 
adversaries.  Their  spirits  were  not  yet  cowed  by  the  recol- 
lection of  former  defeats;  and  they  lavished  their  lives  freely 
rather  than  forfeit  the  fame  which  they  had  won  by  so  many 
victories.  While  their  rear  ranks  poured  an  incessant  shower 
of  arrows  over  the  heads  of  their  comrades,  the  foremost 
Persians  kept  rushing  forward,  sometimes  singly,  some- 
times in  desperate  groups  of  twelve  or  ten,  upon  the  pro- 
jecting spears  of  the  Greeks,  striving  to  force  a  lane  into 
the  phalanx,  and  to  bring  their  simitars  and  daggers  into 
play.  But  the  Greeks  felt  their  superiority,  and  though 
the  fatigue  of  the  long-continued  action  told  heavily  on 
their  inferior  numbers,  the  sight  of  the  carnage  that  they 
dealt  among  their  assailants  nerved  them  to  fight  still  more 
fiercely  on. 

At  last  the  previously  unvanquished  lords  of  Asia  turned 
their  backs  and  fled,  and  the  Greeks  followed,  striking  them 
down,  to  the  water's  edge,7  where  the  invaders  were  now 
hastily  launching  their  galleys,  and  seeking  to  embark  and 
fly.  Flushed  with  success,  the  Athenians  dashed  at  the  fleet. 
"  Bring  fire,  bring  fire,"  was  their  cry  ;  and  they  began  to  lay 
hold  of  the  ships.  But  here  the  Asiatics  resisted  desperately, 
and  the  principal  loss  sustained  by  the  Greeks  was  in  the  as- 


490  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   MARATHON  2$ 

sault  on  the  fleet.  Here  fell  the  brave  War  Ruler  Callimachus, 
the  general  Stesilaus,  and  other  Athenians  of  note.  Conspicu- 
ous among  them  was  Cynaegeirus,  the  brother  of  the  tragic  poet 
yEschylus.  He  had  grasped  the  ornamental  work  on  the  stern 
of  one  of  the  galleys,  and  had  his  hand  struck  off  by  an  ax. 
Seven  galleys  were  captured;  but  the  Persians  succeeded  in 
saving  the  rest.  They  pushed  off  from  the  fatal  shore ;  but 
even  here  the  skill  of  Datis  did  not  desert  him,  and  he  sailed 
round  to  the  western  coast  of  Attica,  in  hopes  to  find  the  city 
unprotected,  and  to  gain  possession  of  it  from  some  of  the 
partisans  of  Hippias.  Miltiades,  however,  saw  and  counter- 
acted his  maneuver.  Leaving  Aristides,  and  the  troops  of 
his  tribe,  to  guard  the  spoil  and  the  slain,  the  Athenian  com- 
mander led  his  conquering  army  by  a  rapid  night  march  back 
across  the  country  to  Athens.  And  when  the  Persian  fleet 
had  doubled  the  Cape  of  Sunium  and  sailed  up  to  the  Athe- 
nian harbor  in  the  morning,  Datis  saw  arrayed  on  the  heights 
above  the  city  the  troops  before  whom  his  men  had  fled  on  the 
preceding  evening.  All  hope  of  further  conquest  in  Europe 
for  the  time  was  abandoned,  and  the  baffled  armada  returned 
to  the  Asiatic  coasts. 

After  the  battle  had  been  fought,  but  while  the  dead  bodies 
were  yet  on  the  ground,  the  promised  reenforcement  from 
Sparta  arrived.  Two  thousand  Lacedaemonian  spearmen, 
starting  immediately  after  the  full  moon,  had  marched  the 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  between  Athens  and  Sparta  in  the 
wonderfully  short  time  of  three  days.  Though  too  late  to 
share  in  the  glory  of  the  action,  they  requested  to  be  allowed 
to  march  to  the  battle-field  to  behold  the  Medes.  They  pro- 
ceeded thither,  gazed  on  the  dead  bodies  of  the  invaders,  and 
then,  praising  the  Athenians  and  what  they  had  done,  they 
returned  to  Lacedaemon. 

The  number  of  the  Persian  dead  was  six  thousand  four  hun- 
dred ;  of  the  Athenians,  a  hundred  and  ninety-two.  The  num- 
ber of  Plataeans  who  fell  is  not  mentioned,  but  as  they  fought 
in  the  part  of  the  army  which  was  not  broken,  it  cannot  have 
been  large. 

The  apparent  disproportion  between  the  losses  of  the  two 
armies  is  not  surprising,  when  we  remember  the  armor  of  the 
Greek    spearmen,  and  the  impossibility  of    heavy  slaughter 


26  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [490  B.C. 

being  inflicted  by  sword  or  lance  on  troops  so  armed,  as  long 
as  they  kept  firm  in  their  ranks.8 

The  Athenian  slain  were  buried  on  the  field  of  battle.  This 
was  contrary  to  the  usual  custom,  according  to  which  the  bones 
of  all  who  fell  fighting  for  their  country  in  each  year  were  de- 
posited in  a  public  sepulcher  in  the  suburb  of  Athens  called 
the  Cerameicus.  But  it  was  felt  that  a  distinction  ought  to 
be  made  in  the  funeral  honors  paid  to  the  men  of  Marathon, 
even  as  their  merit  had  been  distinguished  over  that  of  all 
other  Athenians.  A  lofty  mound  was  raised  on  the  plain  of 
Marathon,  beneath  which  the  remains  of  the  men  of  Athens 
who  fell  in  the  battle  were  deposited.  Ten  columns  were 
erected  on  the  spot,  one  for  each  of  the  Athenian  tribes ;  and 
on  the  monumental  column  of  each  tribe  were  graven  the  names 
of  those  of  its  members  whose  glory  it  was  to  have  fallen  in 
the  great  battle  of  liberation.  The  antiquary  Pausanias  read 
those  names  there  six  hundred  years  after  the  time  when  they 
were  first  graven.9  The  columns  have  long  perished,  but  the 
mound  still  marks  the  spot  where  the  noblest  heroes  of  antiquity, 
the  MaratJwnomacJioi,  repose. 

A  separate  tumulus  was  raised  over  the  bodies  of  the  slain 
Plataeans,  and  another  over  the  light-armed  slaves  who  had 
taken  part  and  had  fallen  in  the  battle.10  There  was  also  a 
distinct  sepulchral  monument  to  the  general  to  whose  genius 
the  victory  was  mainly  due.  Miltiades  did  not  live  long  after 
his  achievement  at  Marathon,  but  he  lived  long  enough  to  expe- 
rience a  lamentable  reverse  of  his  popularity  and  good  fortune. 
As  soon  as  the  Persians  had  quitted  the  western  coasts  of  the 
yEgean,  he  proposed  to  an  assembly  of  the  Athenian  people 
that  they  should  fit  out  seventy  galleys,  with  a  proportionate 
force  of  soldiers  and  military  stores,  and  place  them  at  his 
disposal ;  not  telling  them  whither  he  meant  to  proceed,  but 
promising  them  that,  if  they  would  equip  the  force  he  asked 
for,  and  give  him  discretionary  powers,  he  would  lead  it  to  a 
land  where  there  was  gold  in  abundance  to  be  won  with  ease. 
The  Greeks  at  that  time  believed  in  the  existence  of  Eastern 
realms  teeming  with  gold  as  firmly  as  the  Europeans  of  the 
sixteenth  century  believed  in  an  Eldorado  of  the  West.  The 
Athenians  probably  thought  that  the  recent  victor  of  Mara- 
thon and  former  officer  of  Darius  was  about  to  guide  them  on 


490  B.C.]'  BATTLE   OF   MARATHON  27 

a  secret  expedition  against  some  wealthy  and  unprotected  cities 
of  treasure  in  the  Persian  dominions.  The  armament  was  voted 
and  equipped,  and  sailed  eastward  from  Attica,  no  one  but 
Miltiades  knowing  its  destination,  until  the  Greek  isle  of  Paros 
was  reached,  when  his  true  object  appeared.  In  former  years, 
while  connected  with  the  Persians  as  prince  of  the  Chersonese, 
Miltiades  had  been  involved  in  a  quarrel  with  one  of  the  lead- 
ing men  among  the  Parians,  who  had  injured  his  credit  and 
caused  some  slights  to  be  put  upon  him  at  the  court  of  the 
Persian  satrap,  Hydarnes.  The  feud  had  ever  since  rankled 
in  the  heart  of  the  Athenian  chief,  and  he  now  attacked  Paros 
for  the  sake  of  avenging  himself  on  his  ancient  enemy.  His 
pretext,  as  general  of  the  Athenians,  was  that  the  Parians 
had  aided  the  armament  of  Datis  with  a  war  galley.  The 
Parians  pretended  to  treat  about  terms  of  surrender,  but  used 
the  time  which  they  thus  gained  in  repairing  the  defective 
parts  of  the  fortifications  of  their  city ;  and  they  then  set  the 
Athenians  at  defiance.  So  far,  says  Herodotus,  the  accounts 
of  all  the  Greeks  agree.  But  the  Parians,  in  after  years,  told 
also  a  wild  legend,  how  a  captive  priestess  of  a  Parian  tem- 
ple of  the  deities  of  the  earth  promised  Miltiades  to  give  him 
the  means  of  capturing  Paros  :  how,  at  her  bidding,  the  Athe- 
nian general  went  alone  at  night  and  forced  his  way  into  a 
holy  shrine  near  the  city  gate,  but  with  what  purpose  it  was 
not  known  :  how  a  supernatural  awe  came  over  him,  and  in 
his  flight  he  fell  and  fractured  his  leg :  how  an  oracle  after- 
wards forbade  the  Parians  to  punish  the  sacrilegious  and  trai- 
torous priestess,  "  because  it  was  fated  that  Miltiades  should 
come  to  an  ill  end,  and  she  was  only  the  instrument  to  lead 
him  to  evil."  Such  was  the  tale  that  Herodotus  heard  at 
Paros.  Certain  it  was  that  Miltiades  either  dislocated  or 
broke  his  leg  during  an  unsuccessful  siege  of  that  city,  and 
returned  home  in  evil  plight  with  his  baffled  and  defeated 
forces. 

The  indignation  of  the  Athenians  was  proportionate  to  the 
hope  and  excitement  which  his  promises  had  raised.  Xanthip- 
pus,  the  head  of  one  of  the  first  families  in  Athens,  indicted  him 
before  the  supreme  popular  tribunal  for  the  capital  offense 
of  having  deceived  the  people.  His  guilt  was  undeniable, 
and  the  Athenians  passed  their  verdict  accordingly.     But  the 


28  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [490  B.C. 

recollections  of  Lemnos  and  Marathon  and  the  sight  of  the 
fallen  general,  who  lay  stretched  on  a  couch  before  them, 
pleaded  successfully  in  mitigation  of  punishment,  and  the 
sentence  was  commuted  from  death  to  a  fine  of  fifty  talents. 
This  was  paid  by  his  son,  the  afterwards  illustrious  Cimon, 
Miltiades  dying,  soon  after  the  trial,  of  the  injury  which  he 
had  received  at  Paros.11 

The  melancholy  end  of  Miltiades,  after  his  elevation  to  such 
a  height  of  power  and  glory,  must  often  have  been  recalled  to 
the  mind  of  the  ancient  Greeks  by  the  sight  of  one,  in  partic- 
ular, of  the  memorials  of  the  great  battle  which  he  won.  This 
was  the  remarkable  statue  (minutely  described  by  Pausanias) 
which  the  Athenians,  in  the  time  of  Pericles,  caused  to  be 
hewn  out  of  a  huge  block  of  marble,  which,  it  was  believed, 
had  been  provided  by  Datis  to  form  a  trophy  of  the  antici- 
pated victory  of  the  Persians.  Phidias  fashioned  out  of  this 
a  colossal  image  of  the  goddess  Nemesis,  the  deity  whose 
peculiar  function  was  to  visit  the  exuberant  prosperity  both 
of  nations  and  individuals  with  sudden  and  awful  reverses. 
This  statue  was  placed  in  a  temple  of  the  goddess  at  Rhamnus, 
about  eight  miles  from  Marathon.  Athens  herself  contained 
numerous  memorials  of  her  primary  great  victory.  Panenus, 
the  cousin  of  Phidias,  represented  it  in  fresco  on  the  walls  of 
the  painted  porch ;  and,  centuries  afterwards,  the  figures  of 
Miltiades  and  Callimachus  at  the  head  of  the  Athenians  were 
conspicuous  in  the  fresco.  The  tutelary  deities  were  exhib- 
ited taking  part  in  the  fray.  In  the  background  were  seen 
the  Phoenician  galleys  ;  and  nearer  to  the  spectator  the  Athe- 
nians and  Platseans  (distinguished  by  their  leathern  helmets) 
were  chasing  routed  Asiatics  into  the  marshes  and  the  sea. 
The  battle  was  sculptured,  also,  on  the  Temple  of  Victory  in  the 
Acropolis;  and  even  now  there  may  be  traced  on  the  frieze  the 
figures  of  the  Persian  combatants  with  their  lunar  shields,  their 
bows  and  quivers,  their  curved  simitars,  their  loose  trousers, 
and  Phrygian  tiaras. 

These  and  other  memorials  of  Marathon  were  the  produce 
of  the  meridian  age  of  Athenian  intellectual  splendor  —  of  the 
age  of  Phidias  and  Pericles.  For  it  was  not  merely  by  the 
generation  of  men  whom  the  battle  liberated  from  Hippias  and 
the  Medes  that  the  transcendent  importance  of  their  victory 


490  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   MARATHON  29 

was  gratefully  recognized.  Through  the  whole  epoch  of  her 
prosperity,  through  the  long  Olympiads  of  her  decay,  through 
centuries  after  her  fall,  Athens  looked  back  on  the  day  of 
Marathon  as  the  brightest  of  her  national  existence. 

By  a  natural  blending  of  patriotic  pride  with  grateful  piety, 
the  very  spirits  of  the  Athenians  who  fell  at  Marathon  were 
deified  by  their  countrymen.  The  inhabitants  of  the  districts 
of  Marathon  paid  religious  rites  to  them,  and  orators  solemnly 
invoked  them  in  their  most  impassioned  adjurations  before 
the  assembled  men  of  Athens.  "  Nothing  was  omitted  that 
could  keep  alive  the  remembrance  of  a  deed  which  had  first 
taught  the  Athenian  people  to  know  its  own  strength  by  meas- 
uring it  with  the  power  which  had  subdued  the  greater  part  of 
the  known  world.  The  consciousness  thus  awakened  fixed  its 
character,  its  station,  and  its  destiny ;  it  was  the  spring  of  its 
later  great  actions  and  ambitious  enterprises."     [Thirlwall.] 

It  was  not,  indeed,  by  one  defeat,  however  signal,  that  the 
pride  of  Persia  could  be  broken  and  her  dreams  of  universal 
empire  be  dispelled.  Ten  years  afterwards  she  renewed  her 
attempts  upon  Europe  on  a  grander  scale  of  enterprise,  and 
was  repulsed  by  Greece  with  greater  and  reiterated  loss. 
Larger  forces  and  heavier  slaughter  than  had  been  seen  at 
Marathon  signalized  the  conflicts  of  Greeks  and  Persians  at 
Artemisium,  Salamis,  Plataea,  and  the  Eurymedon.  But, 
mighty  and  momentous  as  these  battles  were,  they  rank  not 
with  Marathon  in  importance.  They  originated  no  new  im- 
pulse. They  turned  back  no  current  of  fate.  They  were 
merely  confirmatory  of  the  already  existing  bias  which  Mara- 
thon had  created.  The  day  of  Marathon  is  the  critical  epoch 
in  the  history  of  the  two  nations.  It  broke  forever  the  spell 
of  Persian  invincibility  which  had  paralyzed  men's  minds.  It 
generated  among  the  Greeks  the  spirit  which  beat  back  Xer- 
xes, and  afterwards  led  on  Xenophon,  Agesilaus,  and  Alex- 
ander, in  terrible  retaliation,  through  their  Asiatic  campaigns. 
It  secured  for  mankind  the  intellectual  treasures  of  Athens, 
the  growth  of  free  institutions,  the  liberal  enlightenment  of 
the  Western  world,  and  the  gradual  ascendency  for  many 
ages  of  the  great  principles  of  European  civilization. 


30  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [490  B.C. 

Notes 

1  The  historians  who  lived  long  after  the  time  of  the  battle,  such  as 
Justin,  Plutarch,  and  others,  give  ten  thousand  as  the  number  of  the  Athe- 
nian army.  Not  much  reliance  could  be  placed  on  their  authority  if  unsup- 
ported by  other  evidence ;  but  a  calculation  made  from  a  number  of  the 
Athenian  free  population  remarkably  confirms  it.  Some  Metoikoi  probably 
served  as  Hoplites  at  Marathon,  but  the  number  of  resident  aliens  at  Athens 
cannot  have  been  large  at  this  period. 

2  Mr.  Grote  observes  that  "  this  volunteer  march  of  the  whole  Plataean 
force  to  Marathon  is  one  of  the  most  affecting  incidents  of  all  Grecian  his- 
tory." In  truth,  the  whole  career  of  Plataea,  and  the  friendship,  strong  even 
unto  death,  between  her  and  Athens,  form  one  of  the  most  affecting  episodes 
in  the  history  of  antiquity.  In  the  Peloponnesian  war  the  Plataeans  again 
were  true  to  the  Athenians  against  all  risks  and  all  calculation  of  self- 
interest;  and  the  destruction  of  Plataea  was  the  consequence.  There  are 
few  nobler  passages  in  the  classics  than  the  speech  in  which  the  Plataean 
prisoners  of  war,  after  the  memorable  siege  of  their  city,  justify  before  their 
Spartan  executioners  their  loyal  adherence  to  Athens. 

3  At  the  battle  of  Plataea,  eleven  years  after  Marathon,  each  of  the  eight 
thousand  Athenian  regular  infantry  who  served  there  was  attended  by  a 
light-armed  slave. 

4  yEschines  in  Ctes.  ^Eschines  is  speaking  of  Xerxes,  but  Mitford  is 
probably  right  in  considering  it  as  the  style  of  the  Persian  kings  in  their 
proclamations.  In  one  of  the  inscriptions  at  Persepolis,  Darius  terms 
himself  "  Darius  the  great  king,  king  of  kings,  the  king  of  the  many  peopled 
countries,  the  supporter  also  of  this  great  world."  In  another,  he  styles 
himself  "  the  king  of  all  inhabited  countries." 

5  It  is  remarkable  that  there  is  no  other  instance  of  a  Greek  general 
deviating  from  the  ordinary  mode  of  bringing  a  phalanx  of  spearmen  into 
action,  until  the  battles  of  Leuctra  and  Mantineia,  more  than  a  century  after 
Marathon,  when  Epaminondas  introduced  the  tactics  (which  Alexander  the 
Great  in  ancient  times,  and  Frederick  the  Great  in  modern  times,  made  so 
famous)  of  concentrating  an  overpowering  force  on  some  decisive  point  of 
the  enemy's  line,  while  he  kept  back,  or,  in  military  phrase,  refused  the 
weaker  part  of  his  own. 

6  See  the  description,  in  the  62d  section  of  the  ninth  book  of  Herodotus, 
of  the  gallantry  shown  by  the  Persian  infantry  against  the  Lacedaemonians 
at  Plataea.  We  have  no  similar  detail  of  the  fight  at  Marathon,  but  we 
know  that  it  was  long  and  obstinately  contested,  and  the  spirit  of  the  Per- 
sians must  have  been  even  higher  at  Marathon  than  at  Plataea.  In  both 
battles  it  was  only  the  true  Persians  and  the  Sacae  who  showed  this  valor ; 
the  other  Asiatics  fled  like  sheep. 

7  "  The  flying  Mede,  his  shaftless  broken  bow ; 
The  fiery  Greek,  his  red  pursuing  spear ; 
Mountains  above,  Earth's,  Ocean's  plain  below, 
Death  in  the  front,  Destruction  in  the  rear  ! 
Such  was  the  scene."  —  Byron's  Childe  Harold. 


490B.C]  BATTLE   OF   MARATHON  3 1 

8  Mitford  well  refers  to  Crecy,  Poitiers,  and  Agincourt,  as  instances  of 
similar  disparity  of  loss  between  the  conquerors  and  the  conquered. 

9  Pausanias  states,  with  implicit  belief,  that  the  battle-field  was  haunted 
at  night  by  supernatural  beings,  and  that  the  noise  of  combatants  and  the 
snorting  of  horses  were  heard  to  resound  on  it.  The  superstition  has  sur- 
vived the  change  of  creeds,  and  the  shepherds  of  the  neighborhood  still 
believe  that  spectral  warriors  contend  on  the  plain  at  midnight,  and  they 
say  that  they  have  heard  the  shouts  of  the  combatants  and  the  neighing  of 
the  steeds. 

10  It  is  probable  that  the  Greek  light-armed  irregulars  were  active  in  the 
attack  on  the  Persian  ships,  and  it  was  in  this  attack  that  the  Greeks  suf- 
fered their  principal  loss. 

11  The  commonplace  calumnies  against  the  Athenians  respecting  Mil- 
tiades  have  been  well  answered  by  Sir  Edward  Bulwer-Lytton  in  his  "  Rise 
and  Fall  of  Athens,"  and  Bishop  Thirlwall,  in  the  second  volume  of  his 
"History  of  Greece"  ;  but  they  have  received  their  most  complete  refutation 
from  Mr.  Grote,  in  the  fourth  volume  of  his  History.  I  quite  concur  with 
him  that,  "looking  to  the  practise  of  the  Athenian  dicastery  in  criminal 
cases,  fifty  talents  was  the  minor  penalty  actually  proposed  by  the  defenders 
of  Miltiades  themselves  as  a  substitute  for  the  punishment  of  death.  In 
those  penal  cases  at  Athens  where  the  punishment  was  not  fixed  beforehand 
by  the  terms  of  the  law,  if  the  person  accused  was  found  guilty  it  was  cus- 
tomary to  submit  to  the  jurors,  subsequently  and  separately,  the  question  as 
to  the  amount  of  punishment.  First,  the  accuser  named  the  penalty  which 
he  thought  suitable ;  next,  the  accused  person  was  called  upon  to  name  an 
amount  of  penalty  for  himself,  and  the  jurors  were  constrained  to  take  their 
choice  between  these  two ;  no  third  gradation  of  penalty  being  admissible 
for  consideration.  Of  course,  under  such  circumstances,  it  was  the  interest 
of  the  accused  party  to  name,  even  in  his  own  case,  some  real  and  serious 
penalty,  something  which  the  jurors  might  be  likely  to  deem  not  wholly 
inadequate  to  his  crime  just  proved ;  for  if  he  proposed  some  penalty  only 
trifling,  he  drove  them  to  prefer  the  heavier  sentence  recommended  by  his 
opponent."  The  stories  of  Miltiades  having  been  cast  into  prison  and 
dying  there,  and  of  his  having  been  saved  from  death  only  by  the  inter- 
position of  the  Prytanis  of  the  day,  are,  I  think,  rightly  rejected  by  Mr. 
Grote  as  the  fictions  of  after  ages.  The  silence  of  Herodotus  respecting 
them  is  decisive.  It  is  true  that  Plato,  in  the  "Gorgias,"  says  that  the 
Athenians  passed  a  vote  to  throw  Miltiades  into  the  Barathrum,  and  speaks 
of  the  interposition  of  the  Prytanis  in  his  favor ;  but  it  is  to  be  remembered 
that  Plato,  with  all  his  transcendent  genius,  was  (as  Niebuhr  has  termed 
him)  a  very  indifferent  patriot,  who  loved  to  blacken  the  character  of  his 
country's  democratic  institutions  ;  and  if  the  fact  was  that  the  Prytanis,  at 
the  trial  of  Miltiades,  opposed  the  vote  of  capital  punishment,  and  spoke  in 
favor  of  the  milder  sentence,  Plato  (in  a  passage  written  to  show  the  mis- 
fortunes which  befell  Athenian  statesmen)  would  readily  exaggerate  this 
fact  into  the  story  that  appears  in  his  text. 


32  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [490  B.C. 

Explanatory  Remarks  on  Some  of  the  Circumstances 
of  the  Battle  of  Marathon 

Nothing  is  said  by  Herodotus  of  the  Persian  cavalry  tak- 
ing any  part  in  the  battle,  although  he  mentions  that  Hippias 
recommended  the  Persians  to  land  at  Marathon,  because  the 
plain  was  favorable  for  cavalry  evolutions.  In  the  life  of 
Miltiades,  which  is  usually  cited  as  the  production  of  Cor- 
nelius Nepos,  but  which  I  believe  to  be  of  no  authority  what- 
ever, it  is  said  that  Miltiades  protected  his  flanks  from  the 
enemy's  horse  by  an  abattis  of  felled  trees.  While  he  was  on 
the  high  ground  he  would  not  have  required  this  defense ; 
and  it  is  not  likely  that  the  Persians  would  have  allowed  him 
to  erect  it  on  the  plain. 

Bishop  Thirlwall  calls  our  attention  to  a  passage  in  Suidas, 
where  the  proverb  Choris  Hippeis  is  said  to  have  originated 
from  some  Ionian  Greeks,  who  were  serving  compulsorily 
in  the  army  of  Datis,  contriving  to  inform  Miltiades  that  the 
Persian  cavalry  had  gone  away,  whereupon  Miltiades  immedi- 
ately joined  battle  and  gained  the  victory.  There  may  prob- 
ably be  a  gleam  of  truth  in  this  legend.  If  Datis's  cavalry 
was  numerous,  as  the  abundant  pastures  of  Euboea  were 
close  at  hand,  the  Persian  general,  when  he  thought,  from 
the  inaction  of  his  enemy,  that  they  did  not  mean  to  come 
down  from  the  heights  and  give  battle,  might  naturally  send 
the  larger  part  of  his  horse  back  across  the  channel  to  the 
neighborhood  of  Eretria,  where  he  had  already  left  a  detach- 
ment, and  where  his  military  stores  must  have  been  deposited. 
The  knowledge  of  such  a  movement  would  of  course  confirm 
Miltiades  in  his  resolution  to  bring  on  a  speedy  engagement. 

But,  in  truth,  whatever  amount  of  cavalry  we  suppose 
Datis  to  have  had  with  him  on  the  day  of  Marathon,  their 
inaction  in  the  battle  is  intelligible,  if  we  believe  the  attack 
of  the  Athenian  spearmen  to  have  been  as  sudden  as  it  was 
rapid.  The  Persian  horse-soldier,  on  an  alarm  being  given, 
had  to  take  the  shackles  off  his  horse,  to  strap  the  saddle  on, 
and  bridle  him,  besides  equipping  himself ;  and  when  each 
individual  horseman  was  ready,  the  line  had  to  be  formed ; 
and  the  time  that  it  takes  to  form  the  Oriental  cavalry  in  line 
for  a  charge  has,  in  all  ages,  been  observed  by  Europeans. 


/ 


490  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   MARATHON  33 

The  wet  state  of  the  marshes  at  each  end  of  the  plain,  in 
the  time  of  year  when  the  battle  was  fought,  has  been  ad- 
verted to  by  Mr.  Wordsworth ;  and  this  would  hinder  the 
Persian  general  from  arranging  and  employing  his  horsemen 
on  his  extreme  wings,  while  it  also  enabled  the  Greeks,  as 
they  came  forward,  to  occupy  the  whole  breadth  of  the  prac- 
ticable ground  with  an  unbroken  line  of  leveled  spears,  against 
which,  if  any  Persian  horse  advanced,  they  would  be  driven 
back  in  confusion  upon  their  own  foot. 

Even  numerous  and  fully  arrayed  bodies  of  cavalry  have 
been  repeatedly  broken,  both  in  ancient  and  modern  warfare, 
by  resolute  charges  of  infantry.  For  instance,  it  was  by  an 
attack  of  some  picked  cohorts  that  Caesar  routed  the  Pompeian 
cavalry,  which  had  previously  defeated  his  own  at  Pharsalia. 

I  have  represented  the  battle  of  Marathon  as  beginning  in 
the  afternoon  and  ending  towards  evening.  If  it  had  lasted 
all  day,  Herodotus  would  have  probably  mentioned  that  fact. 
That  it  ended  towards  evening  is,  I  think,  proved  by  a  line 
from  the  "  Vespae  "  to  which  my  attention  was  called  by  Sir 
Edward  Bulwer-Lytton's  account  of  the  battle.  I  think  that  the 
succeeding  lines  in  Aristophanes  justify  the  description  which  I 
have  given  of  the  rear  ranks  of  the  Persians  keeping  up  a  flight 
of  arrows  over  the  heads  of  their  comrades  against  the  Greeks. 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Marathon, 
490  b.c.,  and  the  defeat  of  the  athenians  at  syra- 
CUSE,   413    B.C. 

490  to  487  b.c.  All  Asia  is  filled  with  the  preparations 
made  by  King  Darius  for  a  new  expedition  against  Greece. 
Themistocles  persuades  the  Athenians  to  leave  off  dividing 
the  proceeds  of  their  silver  mines  among  themselves,  and  to 
employ  the  money  in  strengthening  their  navy. 

487.  Egypt  revolts  from  the  Persians,  and  delays  the  ex- 
pedition against  Greece. 

485.  Darius  dies,  and  Xerxes,  his  son,  becomes  king  of 
Persia  in  his  stead. 

484.    The  Persians  recover  Egypt. 

480.  Xerxes  invades  Greece.  Indecisive  actions  between 
the  Persian  and  Greek  fleets  at  Artemisium.     Destruction  of 


34  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [490  B.C. 

the  three  hundred  Spartans  at  Thermopylae.  The  Athenians 
abandon  Attica  and  go  on  shipboard.  Great  naval  victory  of 
the  Greeks  at  Salamis.  Xerxes  returns  to  Asia,  leaving  a  chosen 
army  under  Mardonius  to  carry  on  the  war  against  the  Greeks. 

478.  Mardonius  and  his  army  destroyed  by  the  Greeks  at 
Plataea.  The  Greeks  land  in  Asia  Minor,  and  defeat  a  Per- 
sian force  at  Mycale.  In  this  and  the  following  years  the 
Persians  lose  all  their  conquests  in  Europe,  and  many  on  the 
coast  of  Asia. 

477.  Many  of  the  Greek  maritime  states  take  Athens  as 
their  leader,  instead  of  Sparta. 

466.  Victories  of  Cimon  over  the  Persians  at  the  Eurym- 
edon. 

464.  Revolt  of  the  Helots  against  Sparta.  Third  Messe- 
nian  war. 

460.  Egypt  again  revolts  against  Persia.  The  Athenians 
send  a  powerful  armament  to  aid  the  Egyptians,  which,  after 
gaining  some  successes,  is  destroyed,  and  Egypt  submits. 
This  war  lasted  six  years. 

457.  Wars  in  Greece  between  the  Athenian  and  several 
Peloponnesian  states.  Immense  exertions  of  Athens  at  this 
time.  "  There  is  an  original  inscription  still  preserved  in  the 
Louvre,  which  attests  the  energies  of  Athens  at  this  crisis, 
when  Athens,  like  England  in  modern  wars,  at  once  sought 
conquests  abroad  and  repelled  enemies  at  home.  At  the 
period  we  now  advert  to  (457  B.C.),  an  Athenian  armament 
of  two  hundred  galleys  was  engaged  in  a  bold  though  unsuc- 
cessful expedition  against  Egypt.  The  Athenian  crews  had 
landed,  had  won  a  battle ;  they  had  then  reembarked  and 
sailed  up  the  Nile,  and  were  busily  besieging  the  Persian 
garrison  in  Memphis.  As  the  complement  of  a  trireme  galley 
was  at  least  two  hundred  men,  we  cannot  estimate  the  forces 
then  employed  by  Athens  against  Egypt  at  less  than  forty 
thousand  men.  At  the  same  time  she  kept  squadrons  on  the 
coasts  of  Phoenicia  and  Cyprus,  and  yet  maintained  a  home 
fleet  that  enabled  her  to  defeat  her  Peloponnesian  enemies  at 
Cecryphalae  and  ^Egina,  capturing  in  the  last  engagement 
seventy  galleys.  This  last  fact  may  give  us  some  idea  of  the 
strength  of  the  Athenian  home  fleet  that  gained  the  victory ; 
and  by  adopting  the  same  ratio  of  multiplying  whatever  num- 


49QB.C]  BATTLE   OF   MARATHON  35 

ber  of  galleys  we  suppose  to  have  been  employed  by  two 
hundred,  so  as  to  gain  the  aggregate  number  of  the  crews,  we 
may  form  some  estimate  of  the  forces  which  this  little  Greek 
state  then  kept  on  foot.  Between  sixty  and  seventy  thou- 
sand men  must  have  served  in  her  fleets  during  that  year. 
Her  tenacity  of  purpose  was  equal  to  her  boldness  of  enter- 
prise. Sooner  than  yield  or  withdraw  from  any  of  their  ex- 
peditions, the  Athenians  at  this  very  time,  when  Corinth  sent 
an  army  to  attack  their  garrison  at  Megara,  did  not  recall  a 
single  crew  or  a  single  soldier  from  ^Egina  or  from  abroad ; 
but  the  lads  and  old  men,  who  had  been  left  to  guard  the 
city,  fought  and  won  a  battle  against  these  new  assailants. 
The  inscription  which  we  have  referred  to  is  graven  on  a 
votive  tablet  to  the  memory  of  the  dead,  erected  in  that  year 
by  the  Erecthean  tribe,  one  of  the  ten  into  which  the  Athe- 
nians were  divided.  It  shows,  as  Thirlwall  has  remarked, 
'  that  the  Athenians  were  conscious  of  the  greatness  of  their 
own  effort ' ;  and  in  it  this  little  civic  community  of  the  ancient 
world  still  '  records  to  us  with  emphatic  simplicity  that  "  its 
slain  fell  in  Cyprus,  in  Egypt,  in  Phoenicia,  at  Haliae,  in 
ALgina,  and  in  Megara,  in  the  same  year."  '  " 

455.  A  thirty  years'  truce  concluded  between  Athens  and 
Lacedaemon. 

440.  The  Samians  endeavor  to  throw  off  the  supremacy  of 
Athens.  Samos  completely  reduced  to  subjection.  Pericles 
is  now  sole  director  of  the  Athenian  councils. 

431.  Commencement  of  the  great  Peloponnesian  war,  in 
which  Sparta,  at  the  head  of  nearly  all  the  Peloponnesian 
states,  and  aided  by  the  Boeotians  and  some  of  the  other 
Greeks  beyond  the  Isthmus,  endeavors  to  reduce  the  power 
of  Athens,  and  to  restore  independence  to  the  Greek  mari- 
time states  who  were  the  subject  allies  of  Athens.  At  the 
commencement  of  the  war  the  Peloponnesian  armies  re- 
peatedly invade  and  ravage  Attica,  but  Athens  herself  is 
impregnable,  and  her  fleets  secure  her  the  dominion  of  the 
sea. 

430.  Athens  visited  by  a  pestilence,  which  sweeps  off  large 
numbers  of  her  population. 

425.  The  Athenians  gain  great  advantages  over  the  Spar- 
tans at  Sphacteria,  and  by  occupying  Cythera  ;  but  they  suffer 


36  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [490  B.C. 

a  severe  defeat  in  Boeotia,  and  the  Spartan  general,  Brasidas, 
leads  an  expedition  to  the  Thracian  coasts,  and  conquers 
many  of  the  most  valuable  Athenian  possessions  in  those 
regions. 

421.  Nominal  truce  for  thirty  years  between  Athens  and 
Sparta,  but  hostilities  continue  on  the  Thracian  coast  and  in 
other  quarters. 

415.    The  Athenians  send  an  expedition  to  conquer  Sicily. 


413  B.C.]  ATHENIAN   DEFEAT  AT   SYRACUSE  37 


CHAPTER   II 

Defeat  of  the  Athenians  at  Syracuse,  413  B.C. 

"  The  Romans  knew  not,  and  could  not  know,  how  deeply  the  greatness 
of  their  own  posterity,  and  the  fate  of  the  whole  Western  world,  were  in- 
volved in  the  destruction  of  the  fleet  of  Athens  in  the  harbor  of  Syracuse. 
Had  that  great  expedition  proved  victorious,  the  energies  of  Greece  during 
the  next  eventful  century  would  have  found  their  field  in  the  West  no  less 
than  in  the  East ;  Greece,  and  not  Rome,  might  have  conquered  Carthage  ; 
Greek  instead  of  Latin  might  have  been  at  this  day  the  principal  element 
of  the  language  of  Spain,  of  France,  and  of  Italy  ;  and  the  laws  of  Athens, 
rather  than  of  Rome,  might  be  the  foundation  of  the  law  of  the  civilized 
world."  —  Arnold. 

"  The  great  expedition  to  Sicily,  one  of  the  most  decisive  events  in  the 
history  of  the  world."  —  Niebuhr. 

FEW  cities  have  undergone  more  memorable  sieges  dur- 
ing ancient  and  medieval  times  than  has  the  city  of 
Syracuse.  Athenian,  Carthaginian,  Roman,  Vandal, 
Byzantine,  Saracen,  and  Norman  have  in  turn  beleaguered 
her  walls ;  and  the  resistance  which  she  successfully  opposed 
to  some  of  her  assailants  was  of  the  deepest  importance,  not 
only  to  the  fortunes  of  the  generations  then  in  being,  but  to 
all  the  subsequent  current  of  human  events.  To  adopt  the 
eloquent  expressions  of  Arnold  respecting  the  check  which 
she  gave  to  the  Carthaginian  arms,  "  Syracuse  was  a  break- 
water which  God's  providence  raised  up  to  protect  the  yet 
immature  strength  of  Rome."  And  her  triumphant  repulse 
of  the  great  Athenian  expedition  against  her  was  of  even 
more  wide-spread  and  enduring  importance.  It  forms  a  de- 
cisive epoch  in  the  strife  for  universal  empire,  in  which  all  the 
great  states  of  antiquity  successively  engaged  and  failed. 

The  present  city  of  Syracuse  is  a  place  of  little  or  no  mili- 
tary strength,  as  the  fire  of  artillery  from  the  neighboring 
heights  would  almost  completely  command  it.     But  in  ancient 


38  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [413  B.C. 

warfare  its  position,  and  the  care  bestowed  on  its  walls,  ren- 
dered it  formidably  strong  against  the  means  of  offense  which 
then  were  employed  by  besieging  armies. 

The  ancient  city,  in  the  time  of  the  Peloponnesian  war,  was 
chiefly  built  on  the  knob  of  land  which  projects  into  the  sea 
on  the  eastern  coast  of  Sicily,  between  two  bays ;  one  of 
which,  to  the  north,  was  called  the  Bay  of  Thapsus,  while  the 
southern  one  formed  the  great  harbor  of  the  city  of  Syracuse 
itself.  A  small  island,  or  peninsula  (for  such  it  soon  was 
rendered),  lies  at  the  southeastern  extremity  of  this  knob  of 
land,  stretching  almost  entirely  across  the  mouth  of  the  great 
harbor,  and  rendering  it  nearly  landlocked.  This  island  com- 
prised the  original  settlement  of  the  first  Greek  colonists  from 
Corinth,  who  founded  Syracuse  two  thousand  five  hundred 
years  ago ;  and  the  modern  city  has  shrunk  again  into  these 
primary  limits.  But,  in  the  fifth  century  before  our  era,  the 
growing  wealth  and  population  of  the  Syracusans  had  led 
them  to  occupy  and  include  within  their  city  walls  portion 
after  portion  of  the  mainland  lying  next  to  the  little  isle ;  so 
that  at  the  time  of  the  Athenian  expedition  the  seaward  part 
of  the  land  between  the  two  bays  already  spoken  of  was  built 
over,  and  fortified  from  bay  to  bay,  constituting  the  larger 
part  of  Syracuse. 

The  landward  wall,  therefore,  of  the  city  traversed  this 
knob  of  land,  which  continues  to  slope  upwards  from  the  sea, 
and  which  to  the  west  of  the  old  fortifications  (that  is,  towards 
the  interior  of  Sicily)  rises  rapidly  for  a  mile  or  two,  but 
diminishes  in  width,  and  finally  terminates  in  a  long,  narrow 
ridge,  between  which  and  Mount  Hybla  a  succession  of 
chasms  and  uneven  low  ground  extends.  On  each  flank  of 
this  ridge  the  descent  is  steep  and  precipitous  from  its  sum- 
mits to  the  strips  of  level  land  that  lie  immediately  below  it, 
both  to  the  southwest  and  northwest. 

The  usual  mode  of  assailing  fortified  towns  in  the  time  of 
the  Peloponnesian  war  was  to  build  a  double  wall  round  them, 
sufficiently  strong  to  check  any  sally  of  the  garrison  from 
within,  or  any  attack  of  a  relieving  force  from  without.  The 
interval  within  the  two  walls  of  the  circumvallation  was  roofed 
over,  and  formed  barracks,  in  which  the  besiegers  posted 
themselves  and   awaited  the   effects  of   want   or  treachery 


413  B.C.]  ATHENIAN    DEFEAT   AT    SYRACUSE  39 

among  the  besieged  in  producing  a  surrender.  And  in  every 
Greek  city  of  those  days,  as  in  every  Italian  republic  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  the  rage  of  domestic  sedition  between  aristo- 
crats and  democrats  ran  high.  Rancorous  refugees  swarmed 
in  the  camp  of  every  invading  enemy ;  and  every  blockaded 
city  was  sure  to  contain  within  its  walls  a  body  of  intriguing 
malcontents,  who  were  eager  to  purchase  a  party  triumph  at 
the  expense  of  a  national  disaster.  Famine  and  faction  were 
the  allies  on  whom  besiegers  relied.  The  generals  of  that 
time  trusted  to  the  operation  of  these  sure  confederates  as 
soon  as  they  could  establish  a  complete  blockade.  They 
rarely  ventured  on  the  attempt  to  storm  any  fortified  post. 
For  the  military  engines  of  antiquity  were  feeble  in  breaching 
masonry,  before  the  improvements  which  the  first  Dionysius 
effected  in  the  mechanics  of  destruction ;  and  the  lives  of 
spearmen,  the  boldest  and  most  highly  trained,  would,  of 
course,  have  been  idly  spent  in  charges  against  unshattered 
walls. 

A  city  built  close  to  the  sea,  like  Syracuse,  was  impregna- 
ble, save  by  the  combined  operations  of  a  superior  hostile 
fleet  and  a  superior  hostile  army.  And  Syracuse,  from  her 
size,  her  population,  and  her  military  and  naval  resources,  not 
unnaturally  thought  herself  secure  from  finding  in  another 
Greek  city  a  foe  capable  of  sending  a  sufficient  armament  to 
menace  her  with  capture  and  subjection.  But  in  the  spring 
of  414  B.C.  the  Athenian  navy  was  mistress  of  her  harbor  and 
the  adjacent  seas;  an  Athenian  army  had  defeated  her  troops, 
and  cooped  them  within  the  town ;  and  from  bay  to  bay  a 
blockading  wall  was  being  rapidly  carried  across  the  strips  of 
level  ground  and  the  high  ridge  outside  the  city  (then  termed 
Epipolae),  which,  if  completed,  would  have  cut  the  Syracusans 
off  from  all  succor  from  the  interior  of  Sicily,  and  have  left 
them  at  the  mercy  of  the  Athenian  generals.  The  besiegers' 
works  were,  indeed,  unfinished ;  but  every  day  the  unfortified 
interval  in  their  lines  grew  narrower,  and  with  it  diminished 
all  apparent  hope  of  safety  for  the  beleaguered  town. 

Athens  was  now  staking  the  flower  of  her  forces,  and  the 
accumulated  fruits  of  seventy  years  of  glory,  on  one  bold 
throw  for  the  dominion  of  the  Western  world.  As  Napoleon 
from  Mount  Cceur  de  Lion  pointed  to  St.  Jean  d'Acre,  and 


40  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [413  B.C. 

told  his  staff  that  the  capture  of  that  town  would  decide  his 
destiny  and  would  change  the  face  of  the  world,  so  the 
Athenian  officers,  from  the  heights  of  Epipolae,  must  have 
looked  on  Syracuse  and  felt  that  with  its  fall  all  the  known 
powers  of  the  earth  would  fall  beneath  them.  They  must 
have  felt  that  Athens,  if  repulsed  there,  must  pause  forever 
in  her  career  of  conquest,  and  sink  from  an  imperial  republic 
into  a  ruined  and  subservient  community. 

At  Marathon,  the  first  in  date  of  the  great  battles  of  the 
world,  we  beheld  Athens  struggling  for  self-preservation 
against  the  invading  armies  of  the  East.  At  Syracuse  she 
appears  as  the  ambitious  and  oppressive  invader  of  others. 
In  her,  as  in  other  republics  of  old  and  of  modern  times,  the 
same  energy  that  had  inspired  the  most  heroic  efforts  in 
defense  of  the  national  independence  soon  learned  to  employ 
itself  in  daring  and  unscrupulous  schemes  of  self-aggrandize- 
ment at  the  expense  of  neighboring  nations.  In  the  interval 
between  the  Persian  and  Peloponnesian  wars  she  had  rapidly 
grown  into  a  conquering  and  dominant  state,  the  chief  of  a 
thousand  tributary  cities,  and  the  mistress  of  the  largest  and 
best-manned  navy  that  the  Mediterranean  had  yet  beheld. 
The  occupation  of  her  territory  by  Xerxes  and  Mardonius,  in 
the  second  Persian  war,  had  forced  her  whole  population  to 
become  mariners;  and  the  glorious  results  of  that  struggle 
confirmed  them  in  their  zeal  for  their  country's  service  at  sea. 
The  voluntary  suffrage  of  the  Greek  cities  of  the  coasts  and 
islands  of  the  ^Egean  first  placed  Athens  at  the  head  of  the 
confederation  formed  for  the  further  prosecution  of  the  war 
against  Persia.  But  this  titular  ascendency  was  soon  con- 
verted by  her  into  practical  and  arbitrary  dominion.  She 
protected  them  from  piracy  and  the  Persian  power,  which 
soon  fell  into  decrepitude  and  decay;  but  she  exacted  in 
return  implicit  obedience  to  herself.  She  claimed  and  en- 
forced a  prerogative  of  taxing  them  at  her  discretion,  and 
proudly  refused  to  be  accountable  for  her  mode  of  expending 
their  supplies.  Remonstrance  against  her  assessments  was 
treated  as  factious  disloyalty ;  and  refusal  to  pay  was  promptly 
punished  as  revolt.  Permitting  and  encouraging  her  subject 
allies  to  furnish  all  their  contingents  in  money,  instead  of 
part   consisting  of  ships  and    men,   the   sovereign    republic 


413  B.C.]  ATHENIAN   DEFEAT   AT   SYRACUSE  41 

gained  the  double  object  of  training  her  own  citizens  by  con- 
stant and  well-paid  service  in  her  fleets,  and  of  seeing  her 
confederates  lose  their  skill  and  discipline  by  inaction,  and 
become  more  and  more  passive  and  powerless  under  her  yoke. 
Their  towns  were  generally  dismantled,  while  the  imperial 
city  herself  was  fortified  with  the  greatest  care  and  sumptu- 
ousness,  the  accumulated  revenues  from  her  tributaries  serv- 
ing to  strengthen  and  adorn  to  the  utmost  her  havens,  her 
docks,  her  arsenals,  her  theaters,  and  her  shrines,  and  to 
array  her  in  that  plenitude  of  architectural  magnificence  the 
ruins  of  which  still  attest  the  intellectual  grandeur  of  the  age 
and  people  which  produced  a  Pericles  to  plan  and  a  Phidias 
to  execute. 

All  republics  that  acquire  supremacy  over  other  nations  rule 
them  selfishly  and  oppressively.  There  is  no  exception  to  this 
in  either  ancient  or  modern  times.  Carthage,  Rome,  Venice, 
Genoa,  Florence,  Pisa,  Holland,  and  Republican  France,  all 
tyrannized  over  every  province  and  subject  state  where  they 
gained  authority.  But  none  of  them  openly  avowed  their 
system  of  doing  so  upon  principle  with  the  candor  which  the 
Athenian  republicans  displayed  when  any  remonstrance  was 
made  against  the  severe  exactions  which  they  imposed  upon 
their  vassal  allies.  They  avowed  that  their  empire  was  a  tyr- 
anny, and  frankly  stated  that  they  solely  trusted  to  force  and 
terror  to  uphold  it.  They  appealed  to  what  they  called  "  the 
eternal  law  of  nature,  that  the  weak  should  be  coerced  by  the 
strong."  Sometimes  they  stated,  and  not  without  some  truth, 
that  the  unjust  hatred  of  Sparta  against  themselves  forced 
them  to  be  unjust  to  others  in  self-defense.  To  be  safe  they 
must  be  powerful ;  and  to  be  powerful  they  must  plunder  and 
coerce  their  neighbors.  They  never  dreamed  of  communicat- 
ing any  franchise,  or  share  in  office,  to  their  dependents ;  but 
jealously  monopolized  every  post  of  command,  and  all  political 
and  judicial  power;  exposing  themselves  to  every  risk  with 
unflinching  gallantry  ;  enduring  cheerfully  the  laborious  train- 
ing and  severe  discipline  which  their  sea-service  required ; 
venturing  readily  on  every  ambitious  scheme ;  and  never  suf- 
fering difficulty  or  disaster  to  shake  their  tenacity  of  purpose. 
Their  hope  was  to  acquire  unbounded  empire  for  their  country, 
and  the  means  of  maintaining  each  of  the  thirty  thousand 


42  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [413  b.c. 

citizens  who  made  up  the  sovereign  republic  in  exclusive  de- 
votion to  military  occupations,  and  to  those  brilliant  sciences 
and  arts  in  which  Athens  already  had  reached  the  meridian 
of  intellectual  splendor. 

Her  great  political  dramatist  speaks  of  the  Athenian  empire 
as  comprehending  a  thousand  states.  The  language  of  the 
stage  must  not  be  taken  too  literally ;  but  the  number  of  the 
dependencies  of  Athens,  at  the  time  when  the  Peloponnesian 
confederacy  attacked  her,  was  undoubtedly  very  great.  With 
a  few  trifling  exceptions,  all  the  islands  of  the  yEgean,  and  all 
the  Greek  cities  which  in  that  age  fringed  the  coasts  of  Asia 
Minor,  the  Hellespont,  and  Thrace,  paid  tribute  to  Athens,  and 
implicitly  obeyed  her  orders.  The  ^Egean  Sea  was  an  Attic 
lake.  Westward  of  Greece,  her  influence,  though  strong,  was 
not  equally  predominant.  She  had  colonies  and  allies  among 
the  wealthy  and  populous  Greek  settlements  in  Sicily  and 
South  Italy,  but  she  had  no  organized  system  of  confederates 
in  those  regions  ;  and  her  galleys  brought  her  no  tribute  from 
the  Western  seas.  The  extension  of  her  empire  over  Sicily 
was  the  favorite  project  of  her  ambitious  orators  and  generals. 
While  her  great  statesman  Pericles  lived,  his  commanding 
genius  kept  his  countrymen  under  control,  and  forbade  them 
to  risk  the  fortunes  of  Athens  in  distant  enterprises  while  they 
had  unsubdued  and  powerful  enemies  at  their  doors.  He 
taught  Athens  this  maxim,  but  he  also  taught  her  to  know  and 
to  use  her  own  strength  ;  and  when  Pericles  had  departed,  the 
bold  spirit  which  he  had  fostered  overleaped  the  salutary 
limits  which  he  had  prescribed.  When  her  bitter  enemies,  the 
Corinthians,  succeeded,  in  431  B.C.,  in  inducing  Sparta  to 
attack  her,  and  a  confederacy  was  formed  of  five  sixths  of  the 
Continental  Greeks,  all  animated  by  anxious  jealousy  and  bitter 
hatred  of  Athens ;  when  armies  far  superior  in  numbers  and 
equipment  to  those  which  had  marched  against  the  Persians 
were  poured  into  the  Athenian  territory,  and  laid  it  waste  to 
the  city  walls ;  the  general  opinion  was  that  Athens  would,  in 
two  or  three  years  at  the  farthest,  be  reduced  to  submit  to  the 
requisitions  of  her  invaders.  But  her  strong  fortifications,  by 
which  she  was  girt  and  linked  to  her  principal  haven,  gave  her, 
in  those  ages,  almost  all  the  advantages  of  an  insular  position. 
Pericles  had  made  her  trust  to  her  empire  of  the  seas.     Every 


413  B.C.]  ATHENIAN    DEFEAT   AT    SYRACUSE  43 

Athenian  in  those  days  was  a  practised  seaman.  A  state  in- 
deed whose  members,  of  an  age  fit  for  service,  at  no  time 
exceeded  thirty  thousand,  and  whose  territorial  extent  did 
not  equal  half  Sussex,  could  only  have  acquired  such  a  naval 
dominion  as  Athens  once  held,  by  devoting  and  zealously  train- 
ing all  its  sons  to  service  in  its  fleets.  In  order  to  man  the 
numerous  galleys  which  she  sent  out,  she  necessarily  employed 
also  large  numbers  of  hired  mariners  and  slaves  at  the  oar ;  but 
the  staple  of  her  crews  was  Athenian,  and  all  posts  of  com- 
mand were  held  by  native  citizens.  It  was  by  reminding  them 
of  this,  of  their  long  practise  in  seamanship,  and  the  certain 
superiority  which  their  discipline  gave  them  over  the  enemy's 
marine,  that  their  great  minister  mainly  encouraged  them  to 
resist  the  combined  power  of  Lacedaemon  and  her  allies.  He 
taught  them  that  Athens  might  thus  reap  the  fruit  of  her  zeal- 
ous devotion  to  maritime  affairs  ever  since  the  invasion  of 
the  Medes ;  "  she  had  not,  indeed,  perfected  herself ;  but  the 
reward  of  her  superior  training  was  the  rule  of  the  sea  —  a 
mighty  dominion,  for  it  gave  her  the  rule  of  much  fair  land 
beyond  its  waves,  safe  from  the  idle  ravages  with  which  the 
Lacedaemonians  might  harass  Attica,  but  never  could  subdue 
Athens."      [Thucydides.] 

Athens  accepted  the  war  with  which  her  enemies  threat- 
ened her  rather  than  descend  from  her  pride  of  place.  And 
though  the  awful  visitation  of  the  plague  came  upon  her  and 
swept  away  more  of  her  citizens  than  the  Dorian  spear  laid 
low,  she  held  her  own  gallantly  against  her  foes.  If  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian  armies  in  irresistible  strength  wasted  every  spring 
her  corn-lands,  her  vineyards,  and  her  olive  groves  with  fire 
and  sword,  she  retaliated  on  their  coasts  with  her  fleets ; 
which,  if  resisted,  were  only  resisted  to  display  the  preemi- 
nent skill  and  bravery  of  her  seamen.  Some  of  her  subject 
allies  revolted,  but  the  revolts  were  in  general  sternly  and 
promptly  quelled.  The  genius  of  one  enemy  had,  indeed, 
inflicted  blows  on  her  power  in  Thrace  which  she  was  unable 
to  remedy ;  but  he  fell  in  battle  in  the  tenth  year  of  the  war ; 
and  with  the  loss  of  Brasidas  the  Lacedaemonians  seemed  to 
have  lost  all  energy  and  judgment.  Both  sides  at  length 
grew  weary  of  the  war ;  and  in  421  B.C.  a  truce  of  fifty  years 
was  concluded,  which,  though  ill  kept,  and  though  many  of 


44  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [413  B.C. 

the  confederates  of  Sparta  refused  to  recognize  it,  and  hos- 
tilities still  continued  in  many  parts  of  Greece,  protected  the 
Athenian  territory  from  the  ravages  of  enemies,  and  enabled 
Athens  to  accumulate  large  sums  out  of  the  proceeds  of  her 
annual  revenues.  So  also,  as  a  few  years  passed  by,  the  havoc 
which  the  pestilence  and  the  sword  had  made  in  her  popula- 
tion was  repaired;  and  in  415  B.C.  Athens  was  full  of  bold 
and  restless  spirits  who  longed  for  some  field  of  distant  enter- 
prise wherein  they  might  signalize  themselves  and  aggrandize 
the  state,  and  who  looked  on  the  alarm  of  Spartan  hostility 
as  a  mere  old  woman's  tale.  When  Sparta  had  wasted  their 
territory  she  had  done  her  worst ;  and  the  fact  of  its  always 
being  in  her  power  to  do  so  seemed  a  strong  reason  for  seek- 
ing to  increase  the  transmarine  dominion  of  Athens. 

The  West  was  now  the  quarter  towards  which  the  thoughts 
of  every  aspiring  Athenian  were  directed.  From  the  very 
beginning  of  the  war  Athens  had  kept  up  an  interest  in 
Sicily ;  and  her  squadrons  had  from  time  to  time  appeared 
on  its  coasts  and  taken  part  in  the  dissensions  in  which  the 
Sicilian  Greeks  were  universally  engaged  one  against  the 
other.  There  were  plausible  grounds  for  a  direct  quarrel  and 
an  open  attack  by  the  Athenians  upon  Syracuse. 

With  the  capture  of  Syracuse  all  Sicily,  it  was  hoped, 
would  be  secured.  Carthage  and  Italy  were  next  to  be 
assailed.  With  large  levies  of  Iberian  mercenaries  she  then 
meant  to  overwhelm  her  Peloponnesian  enemies.  The  Per- 
sian monarchy  lay  in  hopeless  imbecility,  inviting  Greek  inva- 
sion ;  nor  did  the  known  world  contain  the  power  that  seemed 
capable  of  checking  the  growing  might  of  Athens,  if  Syracuse 
once  could  be  hers. 

The  national  historian  of  Rome  has  left  us,  as  an  episode  of 
his  great  work,  a  disquisition  on  the  probable  effects  that  would 
have  followed  if  Alexander  the  Great  had  invaded  Italy.  Pos- 
terity has  generally  regarded  that  disquisition  as  proving  Livy's 
patriotism  more  strongly  than  his  impartiality  or  acuteness. 
Yet,  right  or  wrong,  the  speculations  of  the  Roman  writer 
were  directed  to  the  consideration  of  a  very  remote  possibility. 
To  whatever  age  Alexander's  life  might  have  been  prolonged, 
the  East  would  have  furnished  full  occupation  for  his  martial 
ambition,  as  well  as  for  those  schemes  of  commercial  grandeur 


413  B.C.]  ATHENIAN    DEFEAT   AT    SYRACUSE  45 

and  imperial  amalgamation  of  nations  in  which  the  truly  great 
qualities  of  his  mind  loved  to  display  themselves.  With  his 
death  the  dismemberment  of  his  empire  among  his  generals 
was  certain,  even  as  the  dismemberment  of  Napoleon's  em- 
pire among  his  marshals  would  certainly  have  ensued  if  he 
had  been  cut  off  in  the  zenith  of  his  power.  Rome,  also,  was 
far  weaker  when  the  Athenians  were  in  Sicily  than  she  was 
a  century  afterwards,  in  Alexander's  time.  There  can  be  little 
doubt  but  that  Rome  would  have  been  blotted  out  from  the 
independent  powers  of  the  West  had  she  been  attacked  at 
the  end  of  the  fifth  century  B.C.  by  an  Athenian  army,  largely 
aided  by  Spanish  mercenaries,  and  flushed  with  triumphs 
over  Sicily  and  Africa,  instead  of  the  collision  between  her 
and  Greece  having  been  deferred  until  the  latter  had  sunk 
into  decrepitude  and  the  Roman  Mars  had  grown  into  full 
vigor. 

The  armament  which  the  Athenians  equipped  against  Syra- 
cuse was  in  every  way  worthy  of  the  state  which  formed  such 
projects  of  universal  empire  ;  and  it  has  been  truly  termed 
"  the  noblest  that  ever  yet  had  been  sent  forth  by  a  free  and 
civilized  commonwealth."  The  fleet  consisted  of  one  hundred 
and  thirty-four  war  galleys,  with  a  multitude  of  store-ships. 
A  powerful  force  of  the  best  heavy-armed  infantry  that  Athens 
and  her  allies  could  furnish  was  sent  on  board,  together  with 
a  smaller  number  of  slingers  and  bowmen.  The  quality  of  the 
forces  was  even  more  remarkable  than  the  number.  The  zeal 
of  individuals  vied  with  that  of  the  republic  in  giving  every 
galley  the  best  possible  crew  and  every  troop  the  most  perfect 
accouterments.  And  with  private  as  well  as  public  wealth 
eagerly  lavished  on  all  that  could  give  splendor  as  well  as 
efficiency  to  the  expedition,  the  fated  fleet  began  its  voyage 
for  the  Sicilian  shores  in  the  summer  of  415  B.C. 

The  Syracusans  themselves,  at  the  time  of  the  Pelopon- 
nesian  war,  were  a  bold  and  turbulent  democracy,  tyrannizing 
over  the  weaker  Greek  cities  in  Sicily,  and  trying  to  gain  in 
that  island  the  same  arbitrary  supremacy  which  Athens  main- 
tained along  the  eastern  coast  of  the  Mediterranean.  In 
numbers  and  in  spirit  they  were  fully  equal  to  the  Athenians, 
but  far  inferior  to  them  in  military  and  naval  discipline. 
When  the  probability  of  an  Athenian  invasion  was  first  pub- 


46  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [413  B.C. 

licly  discussed  at  Syracuse,  and  efforts  were  made  by  some  of 
the  wiser  citizens  to  improve  the  state  of  the  national  defenses 
and  prepare  for  the  impending  danger,  the  rumors  of  coming 
war  and  the  proposals  for  preparation  were  received  by  the 
mass  of  the  Syracusans  with  scornful  incredulity.  The  speech 
of  one  of  their  popular  orators  is  preserved  to  us  in  Thu- 
cydides,  and  many  of  its  topics  might,  by  a  slight  alteration  of 
names  and  details,  serve  admirably  for  the  party  among  our- 
selves at  present  which  opposes  the  augmentation  of  our 
forces,  and  derides  the  idea  of  our  being  in  any  peril  from  the 
sudden  attack  of  a  French  expedition.  The  Syracusan  orator 
told  his  countrymen  to  dismiss  with  scorn  the  visionary  terrors 
which  a  set  of  designing  men  among  themselves  strove  to 
excite  in  order  to  get  power  and  influence  thrown  into  their 
own  hands.  He  told  them  that  Athens  knew  her  own  interest 
too  well  to  think  of  wantonly  provoking  their  hostility  :  "  Even 
if  the  enemies  were  to  come"  said  he,  "so  distant  from  their 
resources,  and  opposed  to  such  a  power  as  ours,  their  destruction 
would  be  easy  and  inevitable.  Their  ships  will  liave  enough  to 
do  to  get  to  our  island  at  all,  and  to  carry  such  stores  of  all  sorts 
as  will  be  needed.  They  cannot  therefore  carry,  besides,  an 
army  large  enough  to  cope  with  such  a  population  as  ours.  They 
will  have  no  fortified  place  from  which  to  commence  their  oper- 
ations ;  but  must  rest  them  on  no  better  base  than  a  set  of 
wretched  tents,  and  such  means  as  the  necessities  of  the  moment 
will  allow  them.  But,  in  truth,  I  do  not  believe  that  they  would 
even  be  able  to  effect  a  disembarkation.  Let  us,  therefore,  set 
at  naught  these  reports  as  altogether  of  home  manufacture  ;  and 
be  sure  that,  if  any  enemy  does  come,  the  state  will  know  how 
to  defend  itself  in  a  manner  worthy  of  the  national  honor." 

Such  assertions  pleased  the  Syracusan  assembly  ;  and  their 
counterparts  find  favor  now  among  some  portions  of  the  Eng- 
lish public.  But  the  invaders  of  Syracuse  came ;  made  good 
their  landing  in  Sicily ;  and,  if  they  had  promptly  attacked 
the  city  itself,  instead  of  wasting  nearly  a  year  in  desultory 
operations  in  other  parts  of  the  island,  the  Syracusans  must 
have  paid  the  penalty  of  their  self-sufficient  carelessness  in 
submission  to  the  Athenian  yoke.  But  of  the  three  generals 
who  led  the  Athenian  expedition,  two  only  were  men  of  ability, 
and  one  was  most  weak  and  incompetent.     Fortunately  for 


413  B.C.]  ATHENIAN   DEFEAT   AT   SYRACUSE  47 

Syracuse,  Alcibiades,  the  most  skilful  of  the  three,  was  soon 
deposed  from  his  command  by  a  factious  and  fanatic  vote  of 
his  fellow  countrymen,  and  the  other  competent  one,  Lama- 
chus,  fell  early  in  a  skirmish  ;  while,  more  fortunately  still  for 
her,  the  feeble  and  vacillating  Nicias  remained  unrecalled  and 
unhurt,  to  assume  the  undivided  leadership  of  the  Athenian 
army  and  fleet,  and  to  mar,  by  alternate  overcaution  and 
overcarelessness,  every  chance  of  success  which  the  early 
part  of  the  operations  offered.  Still,  even  under  him,  the 
Athenians  nearly  won  the  town.  They  defeated  the  raw 
levies  of  the  Syracusans,  cooped  them  within  the  walls,  and, 
as  before  mentioned,  almost  effected  a  continuous  fortifica- 
tion from  bay  to  bay  over  Epipolae,  the  completion  of  which 
would  certainly  have  been  followed  by  capitulation. 

Alcibiades,  the  most  complete  example  of  genius  without 
principle  that  history  produces,  the  Bolingbroke  of  antiquity, 
but  with  high  military  talents  superadded  to  diplomatic  and 
oratorical  powers,  on  being  summoned  home  from  his  com- 
mand in  Sicily  to  take  his  trial  before  the  Athenian  tribunal, 
had  escaped  to  Sparta ;  and  he  exerted  himself  there  with  all 
the  selfish  rancor  of  a  renegade  to  renew  the  war  with  Athens, 
and  to  send  instant  assistance  to  Syracuse. 

When  we  read  his  words  in  the  pages  of  Thucydides  (who 
was  himself  an  exile  from  Athens  at  this  period,  and  may 
probably  have  been  at  Sparta  and  heard  Alcibiades  speak), 
we  are  at  a  loss  whether  most  to  admire  or  abhor  his  subtle 
and  traitorous  counsels.  After  an  artful  exordium,  in  which 
he  tried  to  disarm  the  suspicions  which  he  felt  must  be  enter- 
tained of  him,  and  to  point  out  to  the  Spartans  how  com- 
pletely his  interests  and  theirs  were  identified,  through  hatred 
of  the  Athenian  democracy,  he  thus  proceeded :  "  Hear  me, 
at  any  rate,  on  the  matters  which  require  your  grave  atten- 
tion, and  which  I,  from  the  personal  knowledge  that  I  have 
of  them,  can  and  ought  to  bring  before  you.  We  Athenians 
sailed  to  Sicily  with  the  design  of  subduing,  first  the  Greek 
cities  there,  and  next  those  in  Italy.  Then  we  intended  to 
make  an  attempt  on  the  dominions  of  Carthage  and  on  Car- 
thage itself.1  If  all  these  projects  succeeded  (nor  did  we 
limit  ourselves  to  them  in  these  quarters),  we  intended  to  in- 
crease our  fleet  with  the  inexhaustible  supplies  of  ship  timber 


48  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [413  B.C. 

which  Italy  affords,  to  put  in  requisition  the  whole  military- 
force  of  the  conquered  Greek  states,  and  also  to  hire  large 
armies  of  the  barbarians  —  of  the  Iberians,2  and  others  in 
those  regions,  who  are  allowed  to  make  the  best  possible  sol- 
diers. Then,  when  we  had  done  all  this,  we  intended  to  assail 
Peloponnesus  with  our  collected  force.  Our  fleets  would 
blockade  you  by  sea,  and  desolate  your  coasts ;  our  armies 
would  be  landed  at  different  points,  and  assail  your  cities. 
Some  of  these  we  expected  to  storm,3  and  others  we  meant 
to  take  by  surrounding  them  with  fortified  lines.  We  thought 
that  it  would  thus  be  an  easy  matter  thoroughly  to  war  you 
down ;  and  then  we  should  become  the  masters  of  the  whole 
Greek  race.  As  for  expense,  we  reckoned  that  each  con- 
quered state  would  give  us  supplies  of  money  and  provisions 
sufficient  to  pay  for  its  own  conquest,  and  furnish  the  means 
for  the  conquest  of  its  neighbors. 

"  Such  are  the  designs  of  the  present  Athenian  expedition 
to  Sicily,  and  you  have  heard  them  from  the  lips  of  the  man 
who,  of  all  men  living,  is  most  accurately  acquainted  with 
them.  The  other  Athenian  generals  who  remain  with  the 
expedition  will  endeavor  to  carry  out  these  plans.  And  be 
sure  that,  without  your  speedy  interference,  they  will  all  be 
accomplished.  The  Sicilian  Greeks  are  deficient  in  military 
training;  but  still,  if  they  could  be  at  once  brought  to  com- 
bine in  an  organized  resistance  to  Athens,  they  might  even 
now  be  saved.  But  as  for  the  Syracusans  resisting  Athens 
by  themselves,  they  have  already,  with  the  whole  strength  of 
their  population,  fought  a  battle  and  been  beaten ;  they  can- 
not face  the  Athenians  at  sea ;  and  it  is  quite  impossible  for 
them  to  hold  out  against  the  force  of  their  invaders.  And  if 
this  city  falls  into  the  hands  of  the  Athenians,  all  Sicily  is 
theirs,  and  presently  Italy  also;  and  the  danger  which  I 
warned  you  of  from  that  quarter  will  soon  fall  upon  your- 
selves. You  must,  therefore,  in  Sicily  fight  for  the  safety  of 
Peloponnesus.  Send  some  galleys  thither  instantly.  Put  men 
on  board  who  can  work  their  own  way  over,  and  who,  as  soon 
as  they  land,  can  do  duty  as  regular  troops.  But,  above  all, 
let  one  of  yourselves,  let  a  man  of  Sparta,  go  over  to  take  the 
chief  command,  to  bring  into  order  and  effective  discipline 
the  forces  that  are  in  Syracuse,  and  urge  those  who  at  pres- 


413  B.C.]  ATHENIAN   DEFEAT   AT   SYRACUSE  49 

ent  hang  back  to  come  forward  and  aid  the  Syracusans.  The 
presence  of  a  Spartan  general  at  this  crisis  will  do  more  to 
save  the  city  than  a  whole  army."  [Thucydides.]  The 
renegade  then  proceeded  to  urge  on  them  the  necessity  of 
encouraging  their  friends  in  Sicily  by  showing  that  they 
themselves  were  earnest  in  hostility  to  Athens.  He  exhorted 
them  not  only  to  march  their  armies  into  Attica  again,  but  to 
take  up  a  permanent  fortified  position  in  the  country ;  and 
he  gave  them  in  detail  information  of  all  that  the  Athenians 
most  dreaded,  and  how  his  country  might  receive  the  most 
distressing  and  enduring  injury  at  their  hands. 

The  Spartans  resolved  to  act  on  his  advice,  and  appointed 
Gylippus  to  the  Sicilian  command.  Gylippus  was  a  man  who, 
to  the  national  bravery  and  military  skill  of  a  Spartan,  united 
political  sagacity  that  was  worthy  of  his  great  fellow  country- 
man Brasidas ;  but  his  merits  were  debased  by  mean  and 
sordid  vice ;  and  his  is  one  of  the  cases  in  which  history  has 
been  austerely  just,  and  where  little  or  no  fame  has  been 
accorded  to  the  successful  but  venal  soldier.  But  for  the 
purpose  for  which  he  was  required  in  Sicily,  an  abler  man 
could  not  have  been  found  in  Lacedaemon.  His  country  gave 
him  neither  men  nor  money,  but  she  gave  him  her  authority; 
and  the  influence  of  her  name  and  of  his  own  talents  was 
speedily  seen  in  the  zeal  with  which  the  Corinthians  and  other 
Peloponnesian  Greeks  began  to  equip  a  squadron  to  act  under 
him  for  the  rescue  of  Sicily.  As  soon  as  four  galleys  were 
ready  he  hurried  over  with  them  to  the  southern  coast  of  Italy  ; 
and  there,  though  he  received  such  evil  tidings  of  the  state 
of  Syracuse  that  he  abandoned  all  hope  of  saving  that  city, 
he  determined  to  remain  on  the  coast,  and  do  what  he  could 
in  preserving  the  Italian  cities  from  the  Athenians. 

So  nearly,  indeed,  had  Nicias  completed  his  beleaguering 
lines,  and  so  utterly  desperate  had  the  state  of  Syracuse  seem- 
ingly become,  that  an  assembly  of  the  Syracusans  was  actu- 
ally convened,  and  they  were  discussing  the  terms  on  which 
they  should  offer  to  capitulate,  when  a  galley  was  seen  dash- 
ing into  the  great  harbor,  and  making  her  way  towards  the 
town  with  all  the  speed  that  her  rowers  could  supply.  From 
her  shunning  the  part  of  the  harbor  where  the  Athenian  fleet 
lay,  and  making  straight  for  the  Syracusan  side,  it  was  clear 


50  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [413  B.C. 

that  she  was  a  friend.  The  enemy's  cruisers,  careless  through 
confidence  of  success,  made  no  attempt  to  cut  her  off ;  she 
touched  the  beach,  and  a  Corinthian  captain  springing  on 
shore  from  her  was  eagerly  conducted  to  the  assembly  of  the 
Syracusan  people,  just  in  time  to  prevent  the  fatal  vote  being 
put  for  a  surrender. 

Providentially  for  Syracuse,  Gongylus,  the  commander  of 
the  galley,  had  been  prevented  by  an  Athenian  squadron  from 
following  Gylippus  to  South  Italy,  and  he  had  been  obliged 
to  push  direct  for  Syracuse  from  Greece. 

The  sight  of  actual  succor,  and  the  promise  of  more,  revived 
the  drooping  spirits  of  the  Syracusans.  They  felt  that  they 
were  not  left  desolate  to  perish ;  and  the  tidings  that  a  Spar- 
tan was  coming  to  command  them  confirmed  their  resolution 
to  continue  their  resistance.  Gylippus  was  already  near  the 
city.  He  had  learned  at  Locri  that  the  first  report  which 
had  reached  him  of  the  state  of  Syracuse  was  exaggerated ; 
and  that  there  was  an  unfinished  space  in  the  besiegers'  lines 
through  which  it  was  barely  possible  to  introduce  reenforce- 
ments  into  the  town.  Crossing  the  straits  of  Messina,  which 
the  culpable  negligence  of  Nicias  had  left  unguarded,  Gylippus 
landed  on  the  northern  coast  of  Sicily,  and  there  began  to 
collect  from  the  Greek  cities  an  army,  of  which  the  regular 
troops  that  he  brought  from  Peloponnesus  formed  the  nucleus. 
Such  was  the  influence  of  the  name  of  Sparta,4  and  such  were 
his  own  abilities  and  activity,  that  he  succeeded  in  raising 
a  force  of  about  two  thousand  fully  armed  infantry,  with 
a  larger  number  of  irregular  troops.  Nicias,  as  if  infatuated, 
made  no  attempt  to  counteract  his  operations ;  nor,  when 
Gylippus  marched  his  little  army  towards  Syracuse,  did  the 
Athenian  commander  endeavor  to  check  him.  The  Syracu- 
sans marched  out  to  meet  him ;  and  while  the  Athenians 
were  solely  intent  on  completing  their  fortifications  on  the 
southern  side  towards  the  harbor,  Gylippus  turned  their 
position  by  occupying  the  high  ground  in  the  extreme 
rear  of  Epipolse.  He  then  marched  through  the  unfortified 
interval  of  Nicias's  lines  into  the  besieged  town ;  and,  join- 
ing his  troops  with  the  Syracusan  forces,  after  some  engage- 
ments with  varying  success,  gained  the  mastery  over  Nicias, 
drove  the  Athenians  from  Epipolse,  and  hemmed  them  into 


413  B.C.]  ATHENIAN    DEFEAT   AT    SYRACUSE  5 1 

a  disadvantageous  position  in  the  low  grounds  near  the  great 
harbor. 

The  attention  of  all  Greece  was  now  fixed  on  Syracuse ;  and 
every  enemy  of  Athens  felt  the  importance  of  the  opportu- 
nity now  offered  of  checking  her  ambition,  and,  perhaps,  of 
striking  a  deadly  blow  at  her  power.  Large  reenforcements 
from  Corinth,  Thebes,  and  other  cities  now  reached  the  Syra- 
cusans ;  while  the  baffled  and  dispirited  Athenian  general 
earnestly  besought  his  countrymen  to  recall  him,  and  repre- 
sented the  further  prosecution  of  the  siege  as  hopeless. 

But  Athens  had  made  it  a  maxim  never  to  let  difficulty  or 
disaster  drive  her  back  from  any  enterprise  once  undertaken, 
so  long  as  she  possessed  the  means  of  making  an  effort,  how- 
ever desperate,  for  its  accomplishment.  With  indomitable 
pertinacity  she  now  decreed,  instead  of  recalling  her  first 
armament  from  before  Syracuse,  to  send  out  a  second,  though 
her  enemies  near  home  had  now  renewed  open  warfare  against 
her,  and  by  occupying  a  permanent  fortification  in  her  terri- 
tory had  severely  distressed  her  population,  and  were  press- 
ing her  with  almost  all  the  hardships  of  an  actual  siege.  She 
still  was  mistress  of  the  sea,  and  she  sent  forth  another  fleet 
of  seventy  galleys,  and  another  army,  which  seemed  to  drain 
the  very  last  reserves  of  her  military  population,  to  try  if 
Syracuse  could  not  be  won,  and  the  honor  of  the  Athenian 
arms  be  preserved  from  the  stigma  of  retreat.  Hers  was, 
indeed,  a  spirit  that  might  be  broken,  but  never  would  bend. 
At  the  head  of  this  second  expedition  she  wisely  placed  her 
best  general,  Demosthenes,  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
officers  whom  the  Peloponnesian  war  had  produced,  and  who, 
if  he  had  originally  held  the  Sicilian  command,  would  soon 
have  brought  Syracuse  to  submission. 

The  fame  of  Demosthenes  the  general  has  been  dimmed 
by  the  superior  luster  of  his  great  countryman,  Demosthenes 
the  orator.  When  the  name  of  Demosthenes  is  mentioned, 
it  is  the  latter  alone  that  is  thought  of.  The  soldier  has  found 
no  biographer.  Yet  out  of  the  long  list  of  the  great  men 
of  the  Athenian  republic  there  are  few  that  deserve  to  stand 
higher  than  this  brave,  though  finally  unsuccessful,  leader  of 
her  fleets  and  armies  in  the  first  half  of  the  Peloponnesian 
war.     In  his  first  campaign  in  ^Etolia  he  had  shown  some  of 


52  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [413  B.C. 

the  rashness  of  youth,  and  had  received  a  lesson  of  caution, 
by  which  he  profited  throughout  the  rest  of  his  career,  but 
without  losing  any  of  his  natural  energy  in  enterprise  or  in 
execution.  He  had  performed  the  eminent  service  of  rescuing 
Naupactus  from  a  powerful  hostile  armament  in  the  seventh 
year  of  the  war ;  he  had  then,  at  the  request  of  the  Acarna- 
nian  republic,  taken  on  himself  the  office  of  commander-in- 
chief  of  all  their  forces,  and  at  their  head  he  had  gained  some 
important  advantages  over  the  enemies  of  Athens  in  Western 
Greece.  His  most  celebrated  exploits  had  been  the  occupation 
of  Pylos,  on  the  Messenian  coast,  the  successful  defense  of 
that  place  against  the  fleet  and  armies  of  Lacedaemon,  and 
the  subsequent  capture  of  the  Spartan  forces  on  the  isle  of 
Sphacteria ;  which  was  the  severest  blow  dealt  to  Sparta 
throughout  the  war,  and  which  had  mainly  caused  her  to 
humble  herself  to  make  the  truce  with  Athens.  Demosthenes 
was  as  honorably  unknown  in  the  war  of  party  politics  at 
Athens  as  he  was  eminent  in  the  war  against  the  foreign 
enemy.  We  read  of  no  intrigues  of  his  on  either  the  aristo- 
cratic or  democratic  side.  He  was  neither  in  the  interest  of 
Nicias  nor  of  Cleon.  His  private  character  was  free  from  any 
of  the  stains  which  polluted  that  of  Alcibiades.  On  all  these 
points  the  silence  of  the  comic  dramatist  is  decisive  evidence 
in  his  favor.  He  had  also  the  moral  courage,  not  always 
combined  with  physical,  of  seeking  to  do  his  duty  to  his  coun- 
try irrespectively  of  any  odium  that  he  himself  might  incur, 
and  unhampered  by  any  petty  jealousy  of  those  who  were 
associated  with  him  in  command.  There  are  few  men  named 
in  ancient  history  of  whom  posterity  would  gladly  know  more, 
or  whom  we  sympathize  with  more  deeply  in  the  calamities 
that  befell  them,  than  Demosthenes,  the  son  of  Alcisthenes, 
who,  in  the  spring  of  the  year  413  B.C.,  left  Piraeus  at  the  head 
of  the  second  Athenian  expedition  against  Sicily. 

His  arrival  was  critically  timed ;  for  Gylippus  had  encour- 
aged the  Syracusans  to  attack  the  Athenians  under  Nicias  by 
sea  as  well  as  by  land,  and  by  an  able  stratagem  of  Ariston, 
one  of  the  admirals  of  the  Corinthian  auxiliary  squadron,  the 
Syracusans  and  their  confederates  had  inflicted  on  the  fleet 
of  Nicias  the  first  defeat  that  the  Athenian  navy  had  ever 
sustained  from  a  numerically  inferior  foe.     Gylippus  was  pre- 


413  B.C.]  ATHENIAN    DEFEAT   AT    SYRACUSE  53 

paring  to  follow  up  his  advantage  by  fresh  attacks  on  the 
Athenians  on  both  elements,  when  the  arrival  of  Demosthenes 
completely  changed  the  aspect  of  affairs,  and  restored  the 
superiority  to  the  invaders.  With  seventy-three  war  galleys 
in  the  highest  state  of  efficiency,  and  brilliantly  equipped 
with  a  force  of  five  thousand  picked  men  of  the  regular  in- 
fantry of  Athens  and  her  allies,  and  a  still  larger  number 
of  bowmen,  javelin  men,  and  slingers  on  board,  Demosthenes 
rowed  round  the  great  harbor  with  loud  cheers  and  martial 
music,  as  if  in  defiance  of  the  Syracusans  and  their  confeder- 
ates. His  arrival  had  indeed  changed  their  newly  born  hopes 
into  the  deepest  consternation.  The  resources  of  Athens 
seemed  inexhaustible,  and  resistance  to  her  hopeless.  They 
had  been  told  that  she  was  reduced  to  the  last  extremities, 
and  that  her  territory  was  occupied  by  an  enemy ;  and  yet, 
here  they  saw  her,  as  if  in  prodigality  of  power,  sending  forth, 
to  make  foreign  conquests,  a  second  armament,  not  inferior 
to  that  with  which  Nicias  had  first  landed  on  the  Sicilian 
shores. 

With  the  intuitive  decision  of  a  great  commander,  Demos- 
thenes at  once  saw  that  the  possession  of  Epipolae  was  the 
key  to  the  possession  of  Syracuse,  and  he  resolved  to  make  a 
prompt  and  vigorous  attempt  to  recover  that  position,  while 
his  force  was  unimpaired  and  the  consternation  which  its 
arrival  had  produced  among  the  besieged  remained  unabated. 
The  Syracusans  and  their  allies  had  run  out  an  outwork 
along  Epipolas  from. the  city  walls,  intersecting  the  fortified 
lines  of  circumvallation  which  Nicias  had  commenced,  but 
from  which  they  had  been  driven  by  Gylippus.  Could  Demos- 
thenes succeed  in  storming  this  outwork,  and  in  reestablish- 
ing the  Athenian  troops  on  the  high  ground,  he  might  fairly 
hope  to  be  able  to  resume  the  circumvallation  of  the  city,  and 
become  the  conqueror  of  Syracuse ;  for,  when  once  the  be- 
siegers' lines  were  completed,  the  number  of  the  troops  with 
which  Gylippus  had  garrisoned  the  place  would  only  tend  to 
exhaust  the  stores  of  provisions  and  accelerate  its  downfall. 

An  easily  repelled  attack  was  first  made  on  the  outwork  in 
the  daytime,  probably  more  with  the  view  of  blinding  the 
besieged  to  the  nature  of  the  main  operations  than  with  any 
expectation  of  succeeding  in  an  open  assault,  with  every  dis- 


54  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [413  B.C. 

advantage  of  the  ground  to  contend  against.  But  when  the 
darkness  had  set  in,  Demosthenes  formed  his  men  in  columns, 
each  soldier  taking  with  him  five  days'  provisions,  and  the 
engineers  and  workmen  of  the  camp  following  the  troops 
with  their  tools,  and  all  portable  implements  of  fortification, 
so  as  at  once  to  secure  any  advantage  of  ground  that  the 
army  might  gain.  Thus  equipped  and  prepared,  he  led  his 
men  along  by  the  foot  of  the  southern  flank  of  Epipolae,  in 
a  direction  towards  the  interior  of  the  island,  till  he  came 
immediately  below  the  narrow  ridge  that  forms  the  extremity 
of  the  high  ground  looking  westward.  He  then  wheeled  his 
vanguard  to  the  right,  sent  them  rapidly  up  the  paths  that 
wind  along  the  face  of  the  cliff,  and  succeeded  in  completely 
surprising  the  Syracusan  outposts,  and  in  placing  his  troops 
fairly  on  the  extreme  summit  of  the  all-important  Epipolae. 
Thence  the  Athenians  marched  eagerly  down  the  slope  to- 
wards the  town,  routing  some  Syracusan  detachments  that 
were  quartered  in  their  way,  and  vigorously  assailing  the 
unprotected  part  of  the  outwork.  All  at  first  favored  them. 
The  outwork  was  abandoned  by  its  garrison,  and  the  Athe- 
nian engineers  began  to  dismantle  it.  In  vain  Gylippus  brought 
up  fresh  troops  to  check  the  assault ;  the  Athenians  broke 
and  drove  them  back,  and  continued  to  press  hotly  forward, 
in  the  full  confidence  of  victory.  But,  amid  the  general  con- 
sternation of  the  Syracusans  and  their  confederates,  one  body 
of  infantry  stood  firm.  This  was  a  brigade  of  their  Boeotian 
allies,  which  was  posted  low  down  the  slope  of  Epipolae,  out- 
side the  city  walls.  Coolly  and  steadily  the  Boeotian  infantry 
formed  their  line,  and,  undismayed  by  the  current  of  flight 
around  them,  advanced  against  the  advancing  Athenians. 
This  was  the  crisis  of  the  battle.  But  the  Athenian  van  was 
disorganized  by  its  own  previous  successes ;  and,  yielding  to 
the  unexpected  charge  thus  made  on  it  by  troops  in  perfect 
order  and  of  the  most  obstinate  courage,  it  was  driven  back 
in  confusion  upon  the  other  divisions  of  the  army  that  still 
continued  to  press  forward.  When  once  the  tide  was  thus 
turned,  the  Syracusans  passed  rapidly  from  the  extreme  of 
panic  to  the  extreme  of  vengeful  daring,  and  with  all  their 
forces  they  now  fiercely  assailed  the  embarrassed  and  reced- 
ing Athenians.     In  vain  did  the  officers  of  the  latter  strive 


4i3  B.C.]  ATHENIAN   DEFEAT   AT   SYRACUSE  55 

to  reform  their  line.  Amid  the  din  and  the  shouting  of  the 
fight,  and  the  confusion  inseparable  upon  a  night  engage- 
ment, especially  one  where  many  thousand  combatants  were 
pent  and  whirled  together  in  a  narrow  and  uneven  area,  the 
necessary  maneuvers  were  impracticable ;  and  though  many 
companies  still  fought  on  desperately,  wherever  the  moonlight 
showed  them  the  semblance  of  a  foe,  they  fought  without  con- 
cert of  subordination  ;  and  not  unfrequently,  amid  the  deadly 
chaos,  Athenian  troops  assailed  each  other.  Keeping  their 
ranks  close,  the  Syracusans  and  their  allies  pressed  on  against 
the  disorganized  masses  of  the  besiegers ;  and  at  length  drove 
them,  with  heavy  slaughter,  over  the  cliffs,  which,  scarce  an 
hour  before,  they  had  scaled  full  of  hope  and  apparently  cer- 
tain of  success. 

This  defeat  was  decisive  of  the  event  of  the  siege.  The 
Athenians  afterwards  struggled  only  to  protect  themselves 
from  the  vengeance  which  the  Syracusans  sought  to  wreak  in 
the  complete  destruction  of  their  invaders.  Never,  however, 
was  vengeance  more  complete  and  terrible.  A  series  of  sea- 
fights  followed,  in  which  the  Athenian  galleys  were  utterly 
destroyed  or  captured.  The  mariners  and  soldiers  who  escaped 
death  in  disastrous  engagements,  and  in  a  vain  attempt  to 
force  a  retreat  into  the  interior  of  the  island,  became  prison- 
ers of  war.  Nicias  and  Demosthenes  were  put  to  death  in 
cold  blood;  and  their  men  either  perished  miserably  in  the 
Syracusan  dungeons,  or  were  sold  into  slavery  to  the  very 
persons  whom,  in  their  pride  of  power,  they  had  crossed  the 
seas  to  enslave. 

All  danger  from  Athens  to  the  independent  nations  of  the 
West  was  now  forever  at  an  end.  She,  indeed,  continued  to 
struggle  against  her  combined  enemies  and  revolted  allies  with 
unparalleled  gallantry ;  and  many  more  years  of  varying  war- 
fare passed  away  before  she  surrendered  to  their  arms.  But 
no  success  in  subsequent  conquests  could  ever  have  restored 
her  to  the  preeminence  in  enterprise,  resources,  and  maritime 
skill  which  she  had  acquired  before  her  fatal  reverses  in  Sic- 
ily. Nor  among  the  rival  Greek  republics,  whom  her  own 
rashness  aided  to  crush  her,  was  there  any  capable  of  reor- 
ganizing her  empire  or  resuming  her  schemes  of  conquest. 
The  dominion  of  Western  Europe  was  left  for  Rome  and 


56  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [413  B.C. 

Carthage  to  dispute  two  centuries  later,  in  conflict  still  more 
terrible,  and  with  even  higher  displays  of  military  daring  and 
genius,  than  Athens  had  witnessed  either  in  her  rise,  her 
meridian,  or  her  fall. 

Notes 

1  Arnold  well  reminds  the  reader  that  Agathocles,  with  a  Greek  force  far 
inferior  to  that  of  the  Athenians  at  this  period,  did,  a  century  afterwards, 
very  nearly  conquer  Carthage. 

2  It  will  be  remembered  that  Spanish  infantry  were  the  staple  of  the 
Carthaginian  armies.  Doubtless  Alcibiades  and  other  leading  Athenians 
had  made  themselves  acquainted  with  the  Carthaginian  system  of  carrying 
on  war,  and  meant  to  adopt  it.  With  the  marvelous  powers  which  Alcibi- 
ades possessed  of  ingratiating  himself  with  men  of  every  class  and  every 
nation,  and  his  high  military  genius,  he  would  have  been  as  formidable  a 
chief  of  an  army  of  condottieri  as  Hannibal  afterwards  was. 

3  Alcibiades  here  alluded  to  Sparta  itself,  which  was  unfortified.  His 
Spartan  hearers  must  have  glanced  round  them,  at  these  words,  with  mixed 
alarm  and  indignation. 

4  The  effect  of  the  presence  of  a  Spartan  officer  on  the  troops  of  the  other 
Greeks  seems  to  have  been  like  the  effect  of  the  presence  of  an  English 
officer  upon  native  Indian  troops. 

Synopsis  of  the   Events   between   the    Defeat  of  the 
Athenians  at  Syracuse  and  the  Battle  of  Arbela 

412  B.C.  Many  of  the  subject  allies  of  Athens  revolt  from 
her,  on  her  disasters  before  Syracuse  being  known ;  the  seat 
of  war  is  transferred  to  the  Hellespont  and  eastern  side  of  the 
./Egean. 

410.  The  Carthaginians  attempt  to  make  conquests  in 
Sicily. 

407.  Cyrus  the  Younger  is  sent  by  the  king  of  Persia  to 
take  the  government  of  all  the  maritime  parts  of  Asia  Minor, 
and  with  orders  to  help  the  Lacedaemonian  fleet  against  the 
Athenian. 

406.     Agrigentum  taken  by  the  Carthaginians. 

405.  The  last  Athenian  fleet  destroyed  by  Lysander  at 
./Egospotamos.  Athens  closely  besieged.  Rise  of  the  power 
of  Dionysius  at  Syracuse. 

404.  Athens  surrenders.  End  of  the  Peloponnesian  war. 
The  ascendency  of  Sparta  complete  throughout  Greece. 

403.    Thrasybulus,  aided  by  the  Thebans  and  with  the  con- 


413  B.C.]  ATHENIAN    DEFEAT   AT    SYRACUSE  57 

nivance  of  one  of  the  Spartan  kings,  liberates  Athens  from 
the  Thirty  Tyrants,  and  restores  the  democracy. 

401.  Cyrus  the  Younger  commences  his  expedition  into 
Upper  Asia  to  dethrone  his  brother  Artaxerxes  Mnemon. 
He  takes  with  him  an  auxiliary  force  of  ten  thousand  Greeks. 
He  is  killed  in  battle  at  Cunaxa ;  and  the  ten  thousand,  led  by 
Xenophon,  effect  their  retreat  in  spite  of  the  Persian  armies 
and  the  natural  obstacles  of  their  march. 

399.  In  this,  and  the  five  following  years,  the  Lacedaemo- 
nians under  Agesilaus  and  other  commanders  carry  on  war 
against  the  Persian  satraps  in  Asia  Minor. 

396.  Syracuse  is  besieged  by  the  Carthaginians,  and  suc- 
cessfully defended  by  Dionysius. 

394.  Rome  makes  her  first  great  stride  in  the  career  of 
conquest  by  the  capture  of  Veii. 

393.  The  Athenian  admiral,  Conon,  in  conjunction  with 
the  Persian  satrap,  Pharnabazus,  defeats  the  Lacedaemonian 
fleet  off  Cnidus,  and  restores  the  fortifications  of  Athens. 
Several  of  the  former  allies  of  Sparta  in  Greece  carry  on 
hostilities  against  her. 

388.  The  nations  of  Northern  Europe  now  first  appear  in 
authentic  history.  The  Gauls  overrun  great  part  of  Italy, 
and  burn  Rome.  Rome  recovers  from  the  blow,  but  her  old 
enemies,  the  yEquians  and  Volscians,  are  left  completely 
crushed  by  the  Gallic  invaders. 

387.  The  peace  of  Antalcidas  is  concluded  among  the 
Greeks  by  the  mediation  and  under  the  sanction  of  the  Per- 
sian king. 

378  to  361.  Fresh  wars  in  Greece.  Epaminondas  raises 
Thebes  to  be  the  leading  state  of  Greece,  and  the  supremacy 
of  Sparta  is  destroyed  at  the  battle  of  Leuctra.  Epaminondas 
is  killed  in  gaining  the  victory  of  Mantinea,  and  the  power  of 
Thebes  falls  with  him.  The  Athenians  attempt  a  balancing 
system  between  Sparta  and  Thebes. 

359.    Philip  becomes  king  of  Macedon. 

357.  The  Social  war  breaks  out  in  Greece,  and  lasts  three 
years.  Its  result  checks  the  attempt  of  Athens  to  regain  her 
old  maritime  empire. 

356.    Alexander  the  Great  is  born. 

343.    Rome  begins  her  wars  with  the  Samnites :  they  ex- 


58  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [413  B.C. 

tend  over  a  period  of  fifty  years.  The  result  of  this  obstinate 
contest  is  to  secure  for  her  the  dominion  of  Italy. 

340.  Fresh  attempts  of  the  Carthaginians  upon  Syracuse. 
Timoleon  defeats  them  with  great  slaughter. 

338.  Philip  defeats  the  confederate  armies  of  Athens  and 
Thebes  at  Chaeronea,  and  the  Macedonian  supremacy  over 
Greece  is  firmly  established. 

336.  Philip  is  assassinated,  and  Alexander  the  Great  be- 
comes king  of  Macedon.  He  gains  several  victories  over 
the  northern  barbarians  who  had  attacked  Macedonia,  and 
destroys  Thebes,  which,  in  conjunction  with  Athens,  had 
taken  up  arms  against  the  Macedonians. 

334.    Alexander  passes  the  Hellespont. 


33i  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   ARBELA  59 


CHAPTER   III 

The  Battle  of  Arbela,  331  B.C. 

"  Alexander  deserves  the  glory  which  he  has  enjoyed  for  so  many  centu- 
ries and  among  all  nations  ;  but  what  if  he  had  been  beaten  at  Arbela,  hav- 
ing the  Euphrates,  the  Tigris,  and  the  deserts  in  the  rear,  without  any  strong 
places  of  refuge,  nine  hundred  leagues  from  Macedonia?"  —  Napoleon. 

"  Asia  beheld  with  astonishment  and  awe  the  uninterrupted  progress  of 
a  hero,  the  sweep  of  whose  conquests  was  as  wide  and  rapid  as  that  of  her 
own  barbaric  kings  or  the  Scythian  or  Chaldaean  hordes ;  but,  far  unlike 
the  transient  whirlwinds  of  Asiatic  warfare,  the  advance  of  the  Macedonian 
leader  was  no  less  deliberate  than  rapid ;  at  every  step  the  Greek  power 
took  root,  and  the  language  and  the  civilization  of  Greece  were  planted 
from  the  shores  of  the  y£gean  to  the  banks  of  the  Indus,  from  the  Caspian 
and  the  great  Hyrcanian  plain  to  the  cataracts  of  the  Nile  ;  to  exist  actually 
for  nearly  a  thousand  years,  and  in  their  effects  to  endure  forever."  — 
Arnold. 

ALONG  and  not  uninstructive  list  might  be  made  out 
of  illustrious  men  whose  characters  have  been  vindi- 
cated during  recent  times  from  aspersions  which  for 
centuries  had  been  thrown  on  them.  The  spirit  of  modern 
inquiry  and  the  tendency  of  modern  scholarship,  both  of 
which  are  often  said  to  be  solely  negative  and  destructive, 
have,  in  truth,  restored  to  splendor,  and  almost  created  anew, 
far  more  than  they  have  assailed  with  censure,  or  dismissed 
from  consideration  as  unreal.  The  truth  of  many  a  brilliant 
narrative  of  brilliant  exploits  has  of  late  years  been  trium- 
phantly demonstrated ;  and  the  shallowness  of  the  skeptical 
scoffs  with  which  little  minds  have  carped  at  the  great  minds 
of  antiquity  has  been  in  many  instances  decisively  exposed. 
The  laws,  the  politics,  and  the  lines  of  action  adopted  or  rec- 
ommended by  eminent  men  and  powerful  nations  have  been 
examined  with  keener  investigation,  and  considered  with  more 
comprehensive  judgment,  than  formerly  were  brought  to  bear 
on  these  subjects.     The  result  has  been  at  least  as  often  favor- 


60  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [331  B.C. 

able  as  unfavorable  to  the  persons  and  the  states  so  scruti- 
nized ;  and  many  an  oft-repeated  slander  against  both  meas- 
ures and  men  has  thus  been  silenced,  we  may  hope,  forever. 

The  veracity  of  Herodotus,  the  pure  patriotism  of  Pericles, 
of  Demosthenes,  and  of  the  Gracchi,  the  wisdom  of  Cleisthenes 
and  of  Licinius  as  constitutional  reformers,  may  be  mentioned 
as  facts  which  recent  writers  have  cleared  from  unjust  suspi- 
cion and  censure.  And  it  might  be  easily  shown  that  the 
defensive  tendency  which  distinguishes  the  present  and  recent 
best  historians  of  Germany,  France,  and  England  has  been 
equally  manifested  in  the  spirit  in  which  they  have  treated 
the  heroes  of  thought  and  the  heroes  of  action  who  lived  dur- 
ing what  we  term  the  Middle  Ages,  and  whom  it  was  so  long 
the  fashion  to  sneer  at  or  neglect. 

The  name  of  the  victor  of  Arbela  has  led  to  these  reflec- 
tions ;  for,  although  the  rapidity  and  extent  of  Alexander's 
conquests  have  through  all  ages  challenged  admiration  and 
amazement,  the  grandeur  of  genius  which  he  displayed  in  his 
schemes  of  commerce,  civilization,  and  of  comprehensive  union 
and  unity  among  nations  has,  until  lately,  been  comparatively 
unhonored.  This  long-continued  depreciation  was  of  early 
date.  The  ancient  rhetoricians  —  a  class  of  babblers,  a  school 
for  lies  and  scandal,  as  Niebuhr  justly  termed  them  —  chose 
among  the  stock  themes  for  their  commonplaces  the  character 
and  exploits  of  Alexander.  They  had  their  followers  in  every 
age  ;  and  until  a  very  recent  period,  all  who  wished  to  "  point 
a  moral  or  adorn  a  tale  "  about  unreasoning  ambition,  extrava- 
gant pride,  and  the  formidable  frenzies  of  free  will  when 
leagued  with  free  power,  have  never  failed  to  blazon  forth  the 
so-called  madman  of  Macedonia  as  one  of  the  most  glaring 
examples.  Without  doubt,  many  of  these  writers  adopted 
with  implicit  credence  traditional  ideas,  and  supposed,  with 
uninquiring  philanthropy,  that  in  blackening  Alexander  they 
were  doing  humanity  good  service.  But  also,  without  doubt, 
many  of  his  assailants,  like  those  of  other  great  men,  have 
been  mainly  instigated  by  "  that  strongest  of  all  antipathies, 
the  antipathy  of  a  second-rate  mind  to  a  first-rate  one,"  and 
by  the  envy  which  talent  too  often  bears  to  genius. 

Arrian,  who  wrote  his  history  of  Alexander  when  Hadrian 
was  emperor  of  the  Roman  world,  and  when  the  spirit  of  dec- 


33i  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   ARBELA  6 1 

lamation  and  dogmatism  was  at  its  full  height,  but  who  was 
himself,  unlike  the  dreaming  pedants  of  the  schools,  a  states- 
man and  a  soldier  of  practical  and  proved  ability,  well  rebuked 
the  malevolent  aspersions  which  he  heard  continually  thrown 
upon  the  memory  of  the  great  conqueror  of  the  East.  He 
truly  says,  "  Let  the  man  who  speaks  evil  of  Alexander  not 
merely  bring  forward  those  passages  of  Alexander's  life  which 
were  really  evil,  but  let  him  collect  and  review  all  the  actions 
of  Alexander,  and  then  let  him  thoroughly  consider  first  who 
and  what  manner  of  man  he  himself  is,  and  what  has  been  his 
own  career  ;  and  then  let  him  consider  who  and  what  manner 
of  man  Alexander  was,  and  to  what  an  eminence  of  human 
grandeur  he  arrived.  Let  him  consider  that  Alexander  was 
a  king,  and  the  undisputed  lord  of  the  two  continents ;  and 
that  his  name  is  renowned  throughout  the  whole  earth.  Let  the 
evil  speaker  against  Alexander  bear  all  this  in  mind,  and  then 
let  him  reflect  on  his  own  insignificance,  the  pettiness  of  his 
own  circumstances  and  affairs,  and  the  blunders  that  he  makes 
about  these,  paltry  and  trifling  as  they  are.  Let  him  then  ask 
himself  whether  he  is  a  fit  person  to  censure  and  revile  such 
a  man  as  Alexander.  I  believe  that  there  was  in  his  time  no 
nation  of  men,  no  city  —  nay,  no  single  individual  —  with 
whom  Alexander's  name  had  not  become  a  familiar  word.  I 
therefore  hold  that  such  a  man,  who  was  like  no  ordinary 
mortal,  was  not  born  into  the  world  without  some  special 
providence." 

And  one  of  the  most  distinguished  soldiers  and  writers  of 
our  own  nation,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  though  he  failed  to  esti- 
mate justly  the  full  merits  of  Alexander,  has  expressed  his 
sense  of  the  grandeur  of  the  part  played  in  the  world  by 
"The  Great  Emathian  Conqueror"  in  language  that  well 
deserves  quotation:  — 

"  So  much  hath  the  spirit  of  some  one  man  excelled  as  it 
hath  undertaken  and  effected  the  alteration  of  the  greatest 
states  and  commonweals,  the  erection  of  monarchies,  the  con- 
quest of  kingdoms  and  empires,  guided  handfuls  of  men 
against  multitudes  of  equal  bodily  strength,  contrived  victories 
beyond  all  hope  and  discourse  of  reason,  converted  the  fearful 
passions  of  his  own  followers  into  magnanimity,  and  the  valor 
of  his  enemies  into  cowardice ;  such  spirits  have  been  stirred 


62  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [331  B.C. 

up  in  sundry  ages  of  the  world,  and  in  divers  parts  thereof,  to 
erect  and  cast  down  again,  to  establish  and  to  destroy,  and  to 
bring  all  things,  persons,  and  states  to  the  same  certain  ends, 
which  the  infinite  spirit  of  the  Universal,  piercing,  moving,  and 
governing  all  things,  hath  ordained.  Certainly,  the  things 
that  this  king  did  were  marvelous,  and  would  hardly  have  been 
undertaken  by  any  one  else ;  and  though  his  father  had 
determined  to  have  invaded  the  Lesser  Asia,  it  is  like  that  he 
would  have  contented  himself  with  some  part  thereof,  and 
not  have  discovered  the  river  Indus,  as  this  man  did." 

A  higher  authority  than  either  Arrian  or  Raleigh  may  now 
be  referred  to  by  those  who  wish  to  know  the  real  merit  of 
Alexander  as  a  general,  and  how  far  the  commonplace  asser- 
tions are  true,  that  his  successes  were  the  mere  results  of 
fortunate  rashness  and  unreasoning  pugnacity.  Napoleon 
selected  Alexander  as  one  of  the  seven  greatest  generals 
whose  noble  deeds  history  has  handed  down  to  us,  and  from 
the  study  of  whose  campaigns  the  principles  of  war  are  to  be 
learned.  The  critique  of  the  greatest  conqueror  of  modern 
times  on  the  military  career  of  the  great  conqueror  of  the  old 
world  is  no  less  graphic  than  true. 

"Alexander  crossed  the  Dardanelles  334  B.C.,  with  an  army 
of  about  forty  thousand  men,  of  which  one  eighth  was  cav- 
alry ;  he  forced  the  passage  of  the  Granicus  in  opposition 
to  an  army  under  Memnon,  the  Greek,  who  commanded  for 
Darius  on  the  coast  of  Asia,  and  he  spent  the  whole  of  the 
year  333  in  establishing  his  power  in  Asia  Minor.  He  was 
seconded  by  the  Greek  colonists,  who  dwelt  on  the  borders  of 
the  Black  Sea,  and  on  the  Mediterranean,  and  in  Smyrna, 
Ephesus,  Tarsus,  Miletus,  etc.  The  kings  of  Persia  left  their 
provinces  and  towns  to  be  governed  according  to  their  own 
particular  laws.  Their  empire  was  a  union  of  confederated 
states,  and  did  not  form  one  nation ;  this  facilitated  its  con- 
quest. As  Alexander  only  wished  for  the  throne  of  the  mon- 
arch, he  easily  effected  the  change  by  respecting  the  customs, 
manners,  and  laws  of  the  people,  who  experienced  no  change 
in  their  condition. 

"  In  the  year  332,  he  met  with  Darius  at  the  head  of  sixty 
thousand  men,  who  had  taken  up  a  position  near  Tarsus,  on 
the   banks    of  the   Issus,  in   the    province   of   Cilicia.     He 


33i  B.C.]  BATTLE    OF   ARBELA  63 

defeated  him,  entered  Syria,  took  Damascus,  which  contained 
all  the  riches  of  the  Great  King,  and  laid  siege  to  Tyre.  This 
superb  metropolis  of  the  commerce  of  the  world  detained  him 
nine  months.  He  took  Gaza  after  a  siege  of  two  months ; 
crossed  the  desert  in  seven  days ;  entered  Pelusium  and 
Memphis,  and  founded  Alexandria.  In  less  than  two  years, 
after  two  battles  and  four  or  five  sieges,  the  coasts  of  the 
Black  Sea  from  Phasis  to  Byzantium,  those  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean as  far  as  Alexandria,  all  Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and  Egypt, 
had  submitted  to  his  arms. 

"  In  331  he  repassed  the  desert,  encamped  in  Tyre,  recrossed 
Syria,  entered  Damascus,  passed  the  Euphrates  and  Tigris, 
and  defeated  Darius  on  the  field  of  Arbela,  when  he  was  at 
the  head  of  a  still  stronger  army  than  that  which  he  com- 
manded on  the  Issus,  and  Babylon  opened  her  gates  to  him. 
In  330,  he  overran  Susa,  and  took  that  city,  Persepolis,  and 
Pasargada,  which  contained  the  tomb  of  Cyrus.  In  329,  he 
directed  his  course  northward,  entered  Ecbatana,  and  extended 
his  conquests  to  the  coasts  of  the  Caspian ;  punished  Bessus, 
the  cowardly  assassin  of  Darius  ;  penetrated  into  Scythia,  and 
subdued  the  Scythians.  In  328,  he  forced  the  passage  of  the 
Oxus,  received  sixteen  thousand  recruits  from  Macedonia,  and 
reduced  the  neighboring  people  to  subjection.  In  327,  he 
crossed  the  Indus,  vanquished  Porus  in  a  pitched  battle,  took 
him  prisoner,  and  treated  him  as  a  king.  He  contemplated 
passing  the  Ganges,  but  his  army  refused.  He  sailed  down 
the  Indus,  in  the  year  326,  with  eight  hundred  vessels  ;  hav- 
ing arrived  at  the  ocean,  he  sent  Nearchus  with  a  fleet  to  run 
along  the  coasts  of  the  Indian  Ocean  and  the  Persian  Gulf,  as 
far  as  the  mouth  of  the  Euphrates.  In  325,  he  took  sixty 
days  in  crossing  from  Gedrosia,  entered  Keramania,  returned 
to  Pasargada,  Persepolis,  and  Susa,  and  married  Statira,  the 
daughter  of  Darius.  In  324,  he  marched  once  more  to  the 
north,  passed  Ecbatana,  and  terminated  his  career  at  Babylon." 

The  enduring  importance  of  Alexander's  conquests  is  to  be 
estimated  not  by  the  duration  of  his  own  life  and  empire,  or 
even  by  the  duration  of  the  kingdoms  which  his  generals  after 
his  death  formed  out  of  the  fragments  of  that  mighty  dominion. 
In  every  region  of  the  world  that  he  traversed,  Alexander 
planted  Greek  settlements,  and  founded  cities,  in  the  popula- 


64  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [331  b.c. 

tions  of  which  the  Greek  element  at  once  asserted  its  pre- 
dominance. Among  his  successors,  the  Seleucidae  and  the 
Ptolemies  imitated  their  great  captain  in  blending  schemes  of 
civilization,  of  commercial  intercourse,  and  of  literary  and 
scientific  research  with  all  their  enterprises  of  military  ag- 
grandizement, and  with  all  their  systems  of  civil  administration. 
Such  was  the  ascendency  of  the  Greek  genius,  so  wonderfully 
comprehensive  and  assimilating  was  the  cultivation  which  it 
introduced,  that,  within  thirty  years  after  Alexander  crossed 
the  Hellespont,  the  language,  the  literature,  and  the  arts  of 
Hellas,  enforced  and  promoted  by  the  arms  of  semi-Hellenic 
Macedon,  predominated  in  every  country  from  the  shores  of 
that  sea  to  the  Indian  waters.  Even  sullen  Egypt  acknowl- 
edged the  intellectual  supremacy  of  Greece;  and  the  language 
of  Pericles  and  Plato  became  the  language  of  the  statesmen 
and  the  sages  who  dwelt  in  the  mysterious  land  of  the  Pyramids 
and  the  Sphinx.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  this  victory  of 
the  Greek  tongue  was  so  complete  as  to  exterminate  the  Coptic, 
the  Syrian,  the  Armenian,  the  Persian,  or  the  other  native 
languages  of  the  numerous  nations  and  tribes  between  the 
ALgean,  the  Iaxartes,  the  Indus,  and  the  Nile ;  they  survived 
as  provincial  dialects.  Each  probably  was  in  use  as  the  vul- 
gar tongue  of  its  own  district.  But  every  person  with  the 
slightest  pretense  to  education  spoke  Greek.  Greek  was  uni- 
versally the  state  language,  and  the  exclusive  language  of  all 
literature  and  science.  It  formed  also  for  the  merchant,  the 
trader,  and  the  traveller,  as  well  as  for  the  courtier,  the  gov- 
ernment official,  and  the  soldier,  the  organ  of  intercommunica- 
tion among  the  myriads  of  mankind  inhabiting  these  large 
portions  of  the  Old  World.  Throughout  Asia  Minor,  Syria, 
and  Egypt,  the  Hellenic  character  that  was  thus  imparted 
remained  in  full  vigor  down  to  the  time  of  the  Mahometan 
conquests.  The  infinite  value  of  this  to  humanity  in  the 
highest  and  holiest  point  of  view  has  often  been  pointed  out ; 
and  the  workings  of  the  finger  of  Providence  have  been 
gratefully  recognized  by  those  who  have  observed  how  the 
early  growth  and  progress  of  Christianity  were  aided  by  that 
diffusion  of  the  Greek  language  and  civilization  throughout 
Asia  Minor,  Syria,  and  Egypt  which  had  been  caused  by  the 
Macedonian  conquest  of  the  East. 


331  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   ARBELA  65 

In  Upper  Asia,  beyond  the  Euphrates,  the  direct  and  material 
influence  of  Greek  ascendency  was  more  short-lived.  Yet 
during  the  existence  of  the  Hellenic  kingdoms  in  these  regions, 
especially  of  the  Greek  kingdom  of  Bactria,  the  modern  Bo- 
khara, very  important  effects  were  produced  on  the  intellectual 
tendencies  and  tastes  of  the  inhabitants  of  those  countries 
and  of  the  adjacent  ones  by  the  animating  contact  of  the 
Grecian  spirit.  Much  of  Hindoo  science  and  philosophy, 
much  of  the  literature  of  the  later  Persian  kingdom  of  the 
Arsacidae,  either  originated  from,  or  was  largely  modified 
by,  Grecian  influences,  So,  also,  the  learning  and  science  of 
the  Arabians  were  in  a  far  less  degree  the  result  of  original 
invention  and  genius  than  the  reproduction,  in  an  altered 
form,  of  the  Greek  philosophy  and  the  Greek  lore  acquired 
by  the  Saracenic  conquerors  together  with  their  acquisition  of 
the  provinces  which  Alexander  had  subjugated  nearly  a  thou- 
sand years  before  the  armed  disciples  of  Mahomet  com- 
menced their  career  in  the  East.  It  is  well  known  that 
Western  Europe  in  the  Middle  Ages  drew  its  philosophy, 
its  arts,  and  its  science  principally  from  Arabian  teachers. 
And  thus  we  see  how  the  intellectual  influence  of  ancient 
Greece,  poured  on  the  Eastern  world  by  Alexander's  vic- 
tories, and  then  brought  back  to  bear  on  medieval  Europe 
by  the  spread  of  the  Saracenic  powers,  has  exerted  its  action 
on  the  elements  of  modern  civilization  by  this  powerful 
though  indirect  channel,  as  well  as  by  the  more  obvious 
effects  of  the  remnants  of  classic  civilization  which  survived 
in  Italy,  Gaul,  Britain,  and  Spain  after  the  irruption  of  the 
Germanic  nations. 

These  considerations  invest  the  Macedonian  triumphs  in 
the  East  with  never-dying  interest,  such  as  the  most  showy 
and  sanguinary  successes  of  mere  "  low  ambition  and  the 
pride  of  kings,"  however  they  may  dazzle  for  a  moment,  can 
never  retain  with  posterity.  Whether  the  old  Persian  empire, 
which  Cyrus  founded,  could  have  survived  much  longer  than 
it  did,  even  if  Darius  had  been  victorious  at  Arbela,  may 
safely  be  disputed.  That  ancient  dominion,  like  the  Turkish 
at  the  present  time,  labored  under  every  cause  of  decay  and 
dissolution.  The  satraps,  like  the  modern  pashas,  continually 
rebelled  against  the  central  power ;  and  Egypt,  in  particular, 


66  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [331  B.C. 

was  almost  always  in  a  state  of  insurrection  against  its  nomi- 
nal sovereign.  There  was  no  longer  any  effective  central 
control,  or  any  internal  principle  of  unity  fused  through  the 
huge  mass  of  the  empire  and  binding  it  together.  Persia  was 
evidently  about  to  fall ;  but,  had  it  not  been  for  Alexander's 
invasion  of  Asia,  she  would  most  probably  have  fallen 
beneath  some  other  Oriental  power,  as  Media  and  Babylon 
had  formerly  fallen  before  herself,  and  as,  in  after-times, 
the  Parthian  supremacy  gave  way  to  the  revived  ascendency 
of  Persia  in  the  East,  under  the  scepters  of  the  Arsacidae. 
A  revolution  that  merely  substituted  one  Eastern  power  for 
another  would  have  been  utterly  barren  and  unprofitable  to 
mankind. 

Alexander's  victory  at  Arbela  not  only  overthrew  an  Ori- 
ental dynasty,  but  established  European  rulers  in  its  stead. 
It  broke  the  monotony  of  the  Eastern  world  by  the  impres- 
sion of  Western  energy  and  superior  civilization ;  even  as 
England's  present  mission  is  to  break  up  the  mental  and 
moral  stagnation  of  India  and  Cathay  by  pouring  upon  and 
through  them  the  impulsive  current  of  Anglo-Saxon  com- 
merce and  conquest. 

Arbela,  the  city  which  has  furnished  its  name  to  the  deci- 
sive battle  that  gave  Asia  to  Alexander,  lies  more  than  twenty 
miles  from  the  actual  scene  of  conflict.  The  little  village 
then  named  Gaugamela  is  close  to  the  spot  where  the  armies 
met,  but  has  ceded  the  honor  of  naming  the  battle  to  its 
more  euphonious  neighbor.  Gaugamela  is  situated  in  one  of 
the  wide  plains  that  lie  between  the  Tigris  and  the  mountains 
of  Kurdistan.  A  few  undulating  hillocks  diversify  the  sur- 
face of  this  sandy  track ;  but  the  ground  is  generally  level, 
and  admirably  qualified  for  the  evolutions  of  cavalry,  and 
also  calculated  to  give  the  larger  of  two  armies  the  full 
advantage  of  numerical  superiority.  The  Persian  king  (who, 
before  he  came  to  the  throne,  had  proved  his  personal  valor 
as  a  soldier  and  his  skill  as  a  general)  had  wisely  selected 
this  region  for  the  third  and  decisive  encounter  between  his 
forces  and  the  invaders.  The  previous  defeats  of  his  troops, 
however  severe  they  had  been,  were  not  looked  on  as  irrepa- 
rable. The  Granicus  had  been  fought  by  his  generals  rashly 
and  without  mutual  concert.     And,  though    Darius  himself 


33i  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   ARBELA  67 

had  commanded  and  been  beaten  at  Issus,  that  defeat  might 
be  attributed  to  the  disadvantageous  nature  of  the  ground ; 
where,  cooped  up  between  the  mountains,  the  river,  and  the 
sea,  the  numbers  of  the  Persians  confused  and  clogged  alike 
the  general's  skill  and  the  soldiers'  prowess,  so  that  their 
very  strength  became  their  weakness.  Here,  on  the  broad 
plains  of  Kurdistan,  there  was  scope  for  Asia's  largest  host 
to  array  its  lines,  to  wheel,  to  skirmish,  to  condense  or 
expand  its  squadrons,  to  maneuver,  and  to  charge,  at  will. 
Should  Alexander  and  his  scanty  band  dare  to  plunge  into 
that  living  sea  of  war,  their  destruction  seemed  inevitable. 

Darius  felt,  however,  the  critical  nature  to  himself  as  well 
as  to  his  adversary  of  the  coming  encounter.  He  could  not 
hope  to  retrieve  the  consequences  of  a  third  overthrow.  The 
great  cities  of  Mesopotamia  and  Upper  Asia,  the  central 
provinces  of  the  Persian  empire,  were  certain  to  be  at  the 
mercy  of  the  victor.  Darius  knew  also  the  Asiatic  character 
well  enough  to  be  aware  how  it  yields  to  the  prestige  of  suc- 
cess and  the  apparent  career  of  destiny.  He  felt  that  the 
diadem  was  now  either  to  be  firmly  replaced  on  his  own 
brow,  or  to  be  irrevocably  transferred  to  the  head  of  his 
European  conqueror.  He,  therefore,  during  the  long  inter- 
val left  him  after  the  battle  of  Issus,  while  Alexander  was 
subjugating  Syria  and  Egypt,  assiduously  busied  himself  in 
selecting  the  best  troops  which  his  vast  empire  supplied,  and 
in  training  his  varied  forces  to  act  together  with  some  uni- 
formity of  discipline  and  system. 

The  hardy  mountaineers  of  Afghanistan,  Bokhara,  Khiva, 
and  Thibet  were  then,  as  at  present,  far  different  from  the 
generality  of  Asiatics  in  warlike  spirit  and  endurance.  From 
these  districts  Darius  collected  large  bodies  of  admirable 
infantry ;  and  the  countries  of  the  modern  Kurds  and  Turko- 
mans supplied,  as  they  do  now,  squadrons  of  horsemen,  strong, 
skilful,  bold,  and  trained  to  a  life  of  constant  activity  and 
warfare.  It  is  not  uninteresting  to  notice  that  the  ancestors 
of  our  own  late  enemies,  the  Sikhs,  served  as  allies  of  Darius 
against  the  Macedonians.  They  are  spoken  of  in  Arrian  as 
Indians  who  dwelt  near  Bactria.  They  were  attached  to  the 
troops  of  that  satrapy,  and  their  cavalry  was  one  of  the  most 
formidable  forces  in  the  whole  Persian  army. 


68  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [331  B.C. 

Besides  these  picked  troops,  contingents  also  came  in  from 
the  numerous  other  provinces  that  yet  obeyed  the  Great  King. 
Altogether,  the  horse  are  said  to  have  been  forty  thousand, 
the  scythe-bearing  chariots  two  hundred,  and  the  armed  ele- 
phants fifteen  in  number.  The  amount  of  the  infantry  is 
uncertain  ;  but  the  knowledge  which  both  ancient  and  modern 
times  supply  of  the  usual  character  of  Oriental  armies,  and 
of  their  populations  of  camp-followers,  may  warrant  us  in 
believing  that  many  myriads  were  prepared  to  fight,  or  to 
encumber  those  who  fought,  for  the  last  Darius. 

The  position  of  the  Persian  king  near  Mesopotamia  was 
chosen  with  great  military  skill.  It  was  certain  that  Alex- 
ander on  his  return  from  Egypt  must  march  northward  along 
the  Syrian  coast,  before  he  attacked  the  central  provinces  of 
the  Persian  empire.  A  direct  eastward  march  from  the  lower 
part  of  Palestine  across  the  great  Syrian  desert  was  then,  as 
now,  utterly  impracticable.  Marching  eastward  from  Syria, 
Alexander  would,  on  crossing  the  Euphrates,  arrive  at  the 
vast  Mesopotamian  plains.  The  wealthy  capitals  of  the  em- 
pire, Babylon,  Susa,  and  Persepolis,  would  then  lie  to  his 
south ;  and  if  he  marched  down  through  Mesopotamia  to 
attack  them,  Darius  might  reasonably  hope  to  follow  the 
Macedonians  with  his  immense  force  of  cavalry,  and,  without 
even  risking  a  pitched  battle,  to  harass  and  finally  overwhelm 
them.  We  may  remember  that  three  centuries  afterwards  a 
Roman  army  under  Crassus  was  thus  actually  destroyed  by 
the  Oriental  archers  and  horsemen  in  these  very  plains ;  and 
that  the  ancestors  of  the  Parthians  who  thus  vanquished  the 
Roman  legions  served  by  thousands  under  King  Darius.  If, 
on  the  contrary,  Alexander  should  defer  his  march  against 
Babylon,  and  first  seek  an  encounter  with  the  Persian  army, 
the  country  on  each  side  of  the  Tigris  in  this  latitude  was 
highly  advantageous  for  such  an  army  as  Darius  commanded  ; 
and  he  had  close  in  his  rear  the  mountainous  districts  of 
Northern  Media,  where  he  himself  had  in  early  life  been 
satrap,  where  he  had  acquired  reputation  as  a  soldier  and  a 
general,  and  where  he  justly  expected  to  find  loyalty  to  his 
person  and  a  safe  refuge  in  case  of  defeat. 

His  great  antagonist  came  on  across  the  Euphrates  against 
him,  at  the  head  of  an  army  which  Arrian,  copying  from  the 


33i  B.C.]  BATTLE    OF    ARBELA  69 

journals  of  Macedonian  officers,  states  to  have  consisted  of 
forty  thousand  foot  and  seven  thousand  horse.  In  studying 
the  campaigns  of  Alexander,  we  possess  the  peculiar  advan- 
tage of  deriving  our  information  from  two  of  Alexander's 
generals  of  division,  who  bore  an  important  part  in  all  his 
enterprises.  Aristobulus  and  Ptolemy  (who  afterwards  be- 
came king  of  Egypt)  kept  regular  journals  of  the  military 
events  which  they  witnessed ;  and  these  journals  were  in  the 
possession  of  Arrian  when  he  drew  up  his  history  of  Alex- 
ander's expedition.  The  high  character  of  Arrian  for  integ- 
rity makes  us  confident  that  he  used  them  fairly,  and  his 
comments  on  the  occasional  discrepancies  between  the  two 
Macedonian  narratives  prove  that  he  used  them  sensibly. 
He  frequently  quotes  the  very  words  of  his  authorities :  and 
his  history  thus  acquires  a  charm  such  as  very  few  ancient 
or  modern  military  narratives  possess.  The  anecdotes  and 
expressions  which  he  records  we  fairly  believe  to  be  genuine, 
and  not  to  be  the  coinage  of  a  rhetorician,  like  those  in  Cur- 
tius.  In  fact,  in  reading  Arrian,  we  read  General  Aristobulus 
and  General  Ptolemy  on  the  campaigns  of  the  Macedonians ; 
and  it  is  like  reading  General  Jomini  or  General  Foy  on  the 
campaigns  of  the  French. 

The  estimate  which  we  find  in  Arrian  of  the  strength  of 
Alexander's  army  seems  reasonable  when  we  take  into  account 
both  the  losses  which  he  had  sustained  and  the  reenforcements 
which  he  had  received  since  he  left  Europe.  Indeed,  to 
Englishmen,  who  know  with  what  mere  handfuls  of  men  our 
own  generals  have,  at  Plassy,  at  Assaye,  at  Meeanee,  and 
other  Indian  battles,  routed  large  hosts  of  Asiatics,  the  dis- 
parity of  numbers  that  we  read  of  in  the  victories  won  by  the 
Macedonians  over  the  Persians  presents  nothing  incredible. 
The  army  which  Alexander  now  led  was  wholly  composed  of 
veteran  troops  in  the  highest  possible  state  of  equipment  and 
discipline,  enthusiastically  devoted  to  their  leader,  and  full  of 
confidence  in  his  military  genius  and  his  victorious  destiny. 

The  celebrated  Macedonian  phalanx  formed  the  main 
strength  of  his  infantry.  This  force  had  been  raised  and 
organized  by  his  father  Philip,  who  on  his  accession  to  the 
Macedonian  throne  needed  a  numerous  and  quickly  formed 
army,  and  who,  by  lengthening  the  spear  of   the  ordinary 


70  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [331  b.c. 

Greek  phalanx,  and  increasing  the  depth  of  the  files,  brought 
the  tactic  of  armed  masses  to  the  greatest  efficiency  of  which 
it  was  capable  with  such  materials  as  he  possessed.  He 
formed  his  men  sixteen  deep,  and  placed  in  their  grasp  the 
sarissa,  as  the  Macedonian  pike  was  called,  which  was  four- 
and-twenty  feet  in  length,  and,  when  couched  for  action, 
reached  eighteen  feet  in  front  of  the  soldier ;  so  that,  as  a 
space  of  about  two  feet  was  allowed  between  the  ranks,  the 
spears  of  the  five  files  behind  him  projected  in  advance  of 
each  front-rank  man.  The  phalangite  soldier  was  fully 
equipped  in  the  defensive  armor  of  the  regular  Greek  infan- 
try. And  thus  the  phalanx  presented  a  ponderous  and  bris- 
tling mass,  which,  as  long  as  its  order  was  kept  compact,  was 
sure  to  bear  down  all  opposition.  The  defects  of  such  an 
organization  are  obvious,  and  were  proved  in  after-years,  when 
the  Macedonians  were  opposed  to  the  Roman  legions.  But 
it  is  clear  that,  under  Alexander,  the  phalanx  was  not  the 
cumbrous,  unwieldy  body  which  it  was  at  Cynoscephalae  and 
Pydna.  His  men  were  veterans ;  and  he  could  obtain  from 
them  an  accuracy  of  movement  and  steadiness  of  evolution 
such  as  probably  the  recruits  of  his  father  would  only  have 
floundered  in  attempting,  and  such  as  certainly  were  imprac- 
ticable in  the  phalanx  when  handled  by  his  successors,  espe- 
cially as  under  them  it  ceased  to  be  a  standing  force,  and 
became  only  a  militia.  Under  Alexander  the  phalanx  con- 
sisted of  an  aggregate  of  eighteen  thousand  men,  who  were 
divided  into  six  brigades  of  three  thousand  each.  These  were 
again  subdivided  into  regiments  and  companies  ;  and  the  men 
were  carefully  trained  to  wheel,  to  face  about,  to  take  more 
ground,  or  to  close  up,  as  the  emergencies  of  the  battle 
required.  Alexander  also  arrayed,  in  the-  intervals  of  the 
regiments  of  his  phalangites,  troops  armed  in  a  different  man- 
ner, which  could  prevent  their  line  from  being  pierced,  and 
their  companies  taken  in  flank,  when  the  nature  of  the  ground 
prevented  a  close  formation ;  and  which  could  be  withdrawn, 
when  a  favorable  opportunity  arrived  for  closing  up  the 
phalanx  or  any  of  its  brigades  for  a  charge,  or  when  it  was 
necessary  to  prepare  to  receive  cavalry. 

Besides  the  phalanx,  Alexander  had  a  considerable  force  of 
infantry  who  were  called  shield-bearers :  they  were  not  so 


331  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   ARBELA  71 

heavily  armed  as  the  phalangites,  or  as  was  the  case  with  the 
Greek  regular  infantry  in  general ;  but  they  were  equipped 
for  close  fight,  as  well  as  for  skirmishing,  and  were  far  supe- 
rior to  the  ordinary  irregular  troops  of  Greek  warfare.  They 
were  about  six  thousand  strong.  Besides  these,  he  had  sev- 
eral bodies  of  Greek  regular  infantry ;  and  he  had  archers, 
slingers,  and  javelin  men,  who  fought  also  with  broadsword 
and  target.  These  were  principally  supplied  to  him  by  the 
highlanders  of  Illyria  and  Thracia.  The  main  strength  of 
his  cavalry  consisted  in  two  chosen  corps  of  cuirassiers  —  one 
Macedonian  and  one  Thessalian  —  each  of  which  was  about 
fifteen  hundred  strong.  They  were  provided  with  long  lances 
and  heavy  swords,  and  horse  as  well  as  man  was  fully 
equipped  with  defensive  armor.  Other  regiments  of  regular 
cavalry  were  less  heavily  armed,  and  there  were  several 
bodies  of  light  horsemen,  whom  Alexander's  conquests  in 
Egypt  and  Syria  had  enabled  him  to  mount  superbly. 

A  little  before  the  end  of  August,  Alexander  crossed  the 
Euphrates  at  Thapsacus,  a  small  corps  of  Persian  cavalry 
under  Mazaeus  retiring  before  him.  Alexander  was  too  pru- 
dent to  march  down  through  the  Mesopotamian  deserts,  and 
continued  to  advance  eastward  with  the  intention  of  passing 
the  Tigris,  and  then,  if  he  was  unable  to  find  Darius  and 
bring  him  to  action,  of  marching  southward  on  the  left  side 
of  that  river  along  the  skirts  of  a  mountainous  district,  where 
his  men  would  suffer  less  from  heat  and  thirst,  and  where 
provisions  would  be  more  abundant. 

Darius,  finding  that  his  adversary  was  not  to  be  enticed 
into  the  march  through  Mesopotamia  against  his  capital,  de- 
termined to  remain  on  the  battle-ground  which  he  had  chosen 
on  the  left  of  the  Tigris ;  where,  if  his  enemy  met  a  defeat  or 
a  check,  the  destruction  of  the  invaders  would  be  certain  with 
two  such  rivers  as  the  Euphrates  and  the  Tigris  in  their  rear. 
The  Persian  king  availed  himself  to  the  utmost  of  every  ad- 
vantage in  his  power.  He  caused  a  large  space  of  ground  to 
be  carefully  leveled  for  the  operation  of  his  scythe-armed 
chariots ;  and  he  deposited  his  military  stores  in  the  strong 
town  of  Arbela,  about  twenty  miles  in  his  rear.  The  rhetori- 
cians of  after-ages  have  loved  to  describe  Darius  Codomannus 
as  a  second  Xerxes  in  ostentation  and  imbecility ;  but  a  fair 


72  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [331  B.C. 

examination  of  his  generalship  in  this  his  last  campaign  shows 
that  he  was  worthy  of  bearing  the  same  name  as  his  great 
predecessor,  the  royal  son  of  Hystaspes. 

On  learning  that  Darius  was  with  a  large  army  on  the  left 
of  the  Tigris,  Alexander  hurried  forward  and  crossed  that 
river  without  opposition.  He  was  at  first  unable  to  procure 
any  certain  intelligence  of  the  precise  position  of  the  enemy, 
and  after  giving  his  army  a  short  interval  of  rest,  he  marched 
for  four  days  down  the  left  bank  of  the  river.  A  moralist 
may  pause  upon  the  fact  that  Alexander  must  in  this  march 
have  passed  within  a  few  miles  of  the  remains  of  Nineveh, 
the  great  city  of  the  primeval  conquerors  of  the  human  race. 
Neither  the  Macedonian  king  nor  any  of  his  followers  knew 
what  those  vast  mounds  had  once  been.  They  had  already 
become  nameless  masses  of  grass-grown  ruins ;  and  it  is  only 
within  the  last  few  years  that  the  intellectual  energy  of  one  of 
our  own  countrymen  has  rescued  Nineveh  from  its  long 
centuries  of  oblivion. 

On  the  fourth  day  of  Alexander's  southward  march,  his 
advanced  guard  reported  that  a  body  of  the  enemy's  cavalry 
was  in  sight.  He  instantly  formed  his  army  in  order  for 
battle,  and,  directing  them  to  advance  steadily,  he  rode  for- 
ward at  the  head  of  some  squadrons  of  cavalry,  and  charged 
the  Persian  horse  whom  he  found  before  him.  This  was  a 
mere  reconnoitering  party,  and  they  broke  and  fled  immedi- 
ately ;  but  the  Macedonians  made  some  prisoners,  and  from 
them  Alexander  found  that  Darius  was  posted  only  a  few 
miles  off,  and  learned  the  strength  of  the  army  that  he  had 
with  him.  On  receiving  this  news,  Alexander  halted,  and 
gave  his  men  repose  for  four  days,  so  that  they  should  go  into 
action  fresh  and  vigorous.  He  also  fortified  his  camp,  and 
deposited  in  it  all  his  military  stores  and  all  his  sick  and  dis- 
abled soldiers,  intending  to  advance  upon  the  enemy  with  the 
serviceable  part  of  his  army  perfectly  unencumbered.  After 
this  halt  he  moved  forward,  while  it  was  yet  dark,  with  the 
intention  of  reaching  the  enemy,  and  attacking  them  at  break 
of  day.  About  half-way  between  the  camps  there  were  some 
undulations  of  the  ground,  which  concealed  the  two  armies 
from  each  other's  view.  But,  on  Alexander  arriving  at  their 
summit,  he  saw  by  the  early  light  the  Persian  host  arrayed 


331  B.C.]  BATTLE    OF    ARBELA  73 

before  him ;  and  he  probably  also  observed  traces  of  some 
engineering  operation  having  been  carried  on  along  part  of 
the  ground  in  front  of  them.  Not  knowing  that  these  marks 
had  been  caused  by  the  Persians  having  leveled  the  ground 
for  the  free  use  of  their  war  chariots,  Alexander  suspected 
that  hidden  pitfalls  had  been  prepared  with  a  view  of  dis- 
ordering the  approach  of  his  cavalry.  He  summoned  a 
council  of  war  forthwith.  Some  of  the  officers  were  for  at- 
tacking instantly  at  all  hazards,  but  the  more  prudent  opinion 
of  Parmenio  prevailed,  and  it  was  determined  not  to  advance 
farther  till  the  battle-ground  had  been  carefully  surveyed. 

Alexander  halted  his  army  on  the  heights ;  and,  taking  with 
him  some  light-armed  infantry  and  some  cavalry,  he  passed 
part  of  the  day  in  reconnoitering  the  enemy,  and  observing  the 
nature  of  the  ground  which  he  had  to  fight  on.  Darius  wisely 
refrained  from  moving  from  his  position  to  attack  the  Mace- 
donians on  the  eminences  which  they  occupied,  and  the  two 
armies  remained  until  night  without  molesting  each  other. 
On  Alexander's  return  to  his  headquarters,  he  summoned  his 
generals  and  superior  officers  together,  and,  telling  them  that 
he  well  knew  that  their  zeal  wanted  no  exhortation,  he  be- 
sought them  to  do  their  utmost  in  encouraging  and  instructing 
those  whom  each  commanded,  to  do  their  best  in  the  next 
day's  battle.  They  were  to  remind  them  that  they  were  now 
not  going  to  fight  for  a  province,  as  they  had  hitherto  fought, 
but  they  were  about  to  decide  by  their  swords  the  dominion 
of  all  Asia.  Each  officer  ought  to  impress  this  upon  his  sub- 
alterns, and  they  should  urge  it  on  their  men.  Their  natural 
courage  required  no  long  words  to  excite  its  ardor ;  but  they 
should  be  reminded  of  the  paramount  importance  of  steadiness 
in  action.  The  silence  in  the  ranks  must  be  unbroken  as  long 
as  silence  was  proper ;  but  when  the  time  came  for  the 
charge,  the  shout  and  the  cheer  must  be  full  of  terror  for  the 
foe.  The  officers  were  to  be  alert  in  receiving  and  communi- 
cating orders ;  and  every  one  was  to  act  as  if  he  felt  that  the 
whole  result  of  the  battle  depended  on  his  own  single  good 
conduct. 

Having  thus  briefly  instructed  his  generals,  Alexander 
ordered  that  the  army  should  sup,  and  take  their  rest  for 
the  night. 


74  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [331  b.c. 

Darkness  had  closed  over  the  tents  of  the  Macedonians, 
when  Alexander's  veteran  general,  Parmenio,  came  to  him, 
and  proposed  that  they  should  make  a  night  attack  on  the 
Persians.  The  king  is  said  to  have  answered,  that  he  scorned 
to  filch  a  victory,  and  that  Alexander  must  conquer  openly 
and  fairly.  Arrian  justly  remarks  that  Alexander's  resolution 
was  as  wise  as  it  was  spirited.  Besides  the  confusion  and 
uncertainty  which  are  inseparable  from  night  engagements, 
the  value  of  Alexander's  victory  would  have  been  impaired  if 
gained  under  circumstances  which  might  supply  the  enemy 
with  any  excuse  for  his  defeat  and  encourage  him  to  renew 
the  contest.  It  was  necessary  for  Alexander  not  only  to  beat 
Darius,  but  to  gain  such  a  victory  as  should  leave  his  rival 
without  apology  for  defeat,  and  without  hope  of  recovery. 

The  Persians,  in  fact,  expected,  and  were  prepared  to  meet, 
a  night  attack.  Such  was  the  apprehension  that  Darius  enter- 
tained of  it,  that  he  formed  his  troops  at  evening  in  order  of 
battle,  and  kept  them  under  arms  all  night.  The  effect  of  this 
was,  that  the  morning  found  them  jaded  and  dispirited,  while 
it  brought  their  adversaries  all  fresh  and  vigorous  against  them. 

The  written  order  of  battle  which  Darius  himself  caused  to 
be  drawn  up  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Macedonians  after  the 
engagement,  and  Aristobulus  copied  it  into  his  journal.  We 
thus  possess,  through  Arrian,  unusually  authentic  information 
as  to  the  composition  and  arrangement  of  the  Persian  army. 
On  the  extreme  left  were  the  Bactrian,  Daan,  and  Arachosian 
cavalry.  Next  to  these  Darius  placed  the  troops  from  Persia 
proper,  both  horse  and  foot.  Then  came  the  Susians,  and 
next  to  these  the  Cadusians.  These  forces  made  up  the  left 
wing.  Darius's  own  station  was  in  the  center.  This  was  com- 
posed of  the  Indians,  the  Carians,  the  Mardian  archers,  and 
the  division  of  Persians  who  were  distinguished  by  the  golden 
apples  that  formed  knobs  on  their  spears.  Here  also  were 
stationed  the  body-guard  of  the  Persian  nobility.  Besides 
these,  there  were  in  the  center,  formed  in  deep  order,  the 
Uxian  and  Babylonian  troops,  and  the  soldiers  from  the  Red 
Sea.  The  brigade  of  Greek  mercenaries  whom  Darius  had 
in  his  service,  and  who  were  alone  considered  fit  to  stand  in 
the  charge  of  the  Macedonian  phalanx,  was  drawn  up  on 
either  side  of  the  royal  chariot.     The  right  wing  was  com- 


331  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   ARBELA  75 

posed  of  the  Ccelesyrians  and  Mesopotamians,  the  Medes,  the 
Parthians,  the  Sacians,  the  Tapurians,  Hyrcanians,  Albanians, 
and  Sacesinae.  In  advance  of  the  line  on  the  left  wing  were 
placed  the  Scythian  cavalry,  with  a  thousand  of  the  Bactrian 
horse,  and  a  hundred  scythe-armed  chariots.  The  elephants 
and  fifty  scythe-armed  chariots  were  ranged  in  front  of  the 
center ;  and  fifty  more  chariots,  with  the  Armenian  and  Cap- 
padocian  cavalry,  were  drawn  up  in  advance  of  the  right  wing. 

Thus  arrayed,  the  great  host  of  King  Darius  passed  the 
night,  that  to  many  thousands  of  them  was  the  last  of  their 
existence.  The  morning  of  the  first  of  October,1  two  thou- 
sand one  hundred  and  eighty-two  years  ago,  dawned  slowly 
to  their  wearied  watching,  and  they  could  hear  the  note  of 
the  Macedonian  trumpet  sounding  to  arms,  and  could  see 
King  Alexander's  forces  descend  from  their  tents  on  the 
heights,  and  form  in  order  of  battle  on  the  plain. 

There  was  deep  need  of  skill,  as  well  as  of  valor,  on  Alex- 
ander's side ;  and  few  battle-fields  have  witnessed  more  consum- 
mate generalship  than  was  now  displayed  by  the  Macedonian 
king.  There  were  no  natural  barriers  by  which  he  could  pro- 
tect his  flanks ;  and  not  only  was  he  certain  to  be  overlapped 
on  either  wing  by  the  vast  lines  of  the  Persian  army,  but  there 
was  imminent  risk  of  their  circling  round  him  and  charging 
him  in  the  rear,  while  he  advanced  against  their  center.  He 
formed,  therefore,  a  second  or  reserve  line,  which  was  to  wheel 
round,  if  required,  or  to  detach  troops  to  either  flank,  as  the 
enemy's  movements  might  necessitate ;  and  thus,  with  their 
whole  army  ready  at  any  moment  to  be  thrown  into  one  vast 
hollow  square,  the  Macedonians  advanced  in  two  lines  against 
the  enemy,  Alexander  himself  leading  on  the  right  wing,  and 
the  renowned  phalanx  forming  the  center,  while  Parmenio 
commanded  on  the  left. 

Such  was  the  general  nature  of  the  disposition  which  Alex- 
ander made  of  his  army.  But  we  have  in  Arrian  the  details 
of  the  position  of  each  brigade  and  regiment ;  and  as  we  know 
that  these  details  were  taken  from  the  journals  of  Macedonian 
generals,  it  is  interesting  to  examine  them,  and  to  read  the 
names  and  stations  of  King  Alexander's  generals  and  colo- 
nels in  this  the  greatest  of  his  battles. 

The  eight  troops  of  the  royal  horse-guards  formed  the  right 


y6  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [331  b.c. 

of  Alexander's  line.  Their  captains  were  Cleitus  (whose  regi- 
ment was  on  the  extreme  right,  the  post  of  peculiar  danger), 
Glaucias,  Ariston,  Sopolis,  Heracleides,  Demetrias,  Meleager, 
and  Hegelochus.  Philotas  was  general  of  the  whole  division. 
Then  came  the  shield-bearing  infantry :  Nicanor  was  their  gen- 
eral. Then  came  the  phalanx,  in  six  brigades.  Ccenus's  bri- 
gade was  on  the  right,  the  nearest  to  the  shield-bearers  ;  next 
to  this  stood  the  brigade  of  Perdiccas,  then  Meleager's,  then 
Polysperchon's  ;  and  then  the  brigade  of  Amynias,  but  which 
was  now  commanded  by  Simmias,  as  Amynias  had  been  sent 
to  Macedonia  to  levy  recruits.  Then  came  the  infantry  of 
the  left  wing,  under  the  command  of  Craterus.  Next  to  Cra- 
terus's  infantry  were  placed  the  cavalry  regiments  of  the 
allies,  with  Eriguius  for  their  general.  The  Thessalian  cav- 
alry, commanded  by  Philippus,  were  next,  and  held  the  ex- 
treme left  of  the  whole  army.  The  whole  left  wing  was 
entrusted  to  the  command  of  Parmenio,  who  had  round  his 
person  the  Pharsalian  troop  of  cavalry,  which  was  the  strong- 
est and  best  amid  all  the  Thessalian  horse  regiments. 

The  center  of  the  second  line  was  occupied  by  a  body  of 
phalangite  infantry,  formed  of  companies,  which  were  drafted 
for  this  purpose  from  each  of  the  brigades  of  their  phalanx. 
The  officers  in  command  of  this  corps  were  ordered  to  be 
ready  to  face  about  if  the  enemy  should  succeed  in  gaining 
the  rear  of  the  army.  On  the  right  of  this  reserve  of  infan- 
try, in  the  second  line,  and  behind  the  royal  horse-guards, 
Alexander  placed  half  the  Agrian  light-armed  infantry  under 
Attalus,  and  with  them  Brison's  body  of  Macedonian  archers, 
and  Cleander's  regiment  of  foot.  He  also  placed  in  this  part 
of  his  army  Menidas's  squadron  of  cavalry,  and  Aretes' s  and 
Ariston's  light-horse.  Menidas  was  ordered  to  watch  if  the 
enemy's  cavalry  tried  to  turn  the  flank,  and  if  they  did  so,  to 
charge  them  before  they  wheeled  completely  round,  and  so 
take  them  in  flank  themselves.  A  similar  force  was  arranged 
on  the  left  of  the  second  line  for  the  same  purpose.  The 
Thracian  infantry  of  Sitalces  were  placed  there,  and  Ccera- 
nus's  regiment  of  the  cavalry  of  the  Greek  allies,  and  Aga- 
thon's  troops  of  the  Odrysian  irregular  horse.  The  extreme 
left  of  the  second  line  in  this  quarter  was  held  by  Androma- 
chus's  cavalry.     A  division  of  Thracian  infantry  was  left  in 


331  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   ARBELA  77 

guard  of  the  camp.  In  advance  of  the  right  wing  and  center 
were  scattered  a  number  of  light-armed  troops,  of  javelin  men 
and  bowmen,  with  the  intention  of  warding  off  the  charge  of 
the  armed  chariots.2 

Conspicuous  by  the  brilliancy  of  his  armor,  and  by  the 
chosen  band  of  officers  who  were  round  his  person,  Alexan- 
der took  his  own  station,  as  his  custom  was,  in  the  right  wing, 
at  the  head  of  his  cavalry ;  and  when  all  the  arrangements 
for  the  battle  were  complete,  and  his  generals  were  fully 
instructed  how  to  act  in  each  probable  emergency,  he  began 
to  lead  his  men  towards  the  enemy. 

It  was  ever  his  custom  to  expose  his  life  freely  in  battle, 
and  to  emulate  the  personal  prowess  of  his  great  ancestor, 
Achilles.  Perhaps,  in  the  bold  enterprise  of  conquering  Per- 
sia, it  was  politic  for  Alexander  to  raise  his  army's  daring  to 
the  utmost  by  the  example  of  his  own  heroic  valor ;  and,  in 
his  subsequent  campaigns,  the  love  of  the  excitement,  of  "  the 
rapture  of  the  strife,"  may  have  made  him,  like  Murat,  con- 
tinue from  choice  a  custom  which  he  commenced  from  duty. 
But  he  never  suffered  the  ardor  of  the  soldier  to  make  him 
lose  the  coolness  of  the  general ;  and  at  Arbela,  in  particu- 
lar, he  showed  that  he  could  act  up  to  his  favorite  Homeric 
maxim  of  being  — 

' '  Afxcpdrepov,  fia<n\(6s  t*  ay  adds  Kparep6s  r'  alxwrfc. 

Great  reliance  had  been  placed  by  the  Persian  king  on  the 
effects  of  the  scythe-bearing  chariots.  It  was  designed  to 
launch  these  against  the  Macedonian  phalanx,  and  to  follow 
them  up  by  a  heavy  charge  of  cavalry,  which  it  was  hoped 
would  find  the  ranks  of  the  spearmen  disordered  by  the  rush 
of  the  chariots,  and  easily  destroy  this  most  formidable  part 
of  Alexander's  force.  In  front,  therefore,  of  the  Persian  cen- 
ter, where  Darius  took  his  station,  and  which  it  was  supposed 
the  phalanx  would  attack,  the  ground  had  been  carefully  lev- 
eled and  smoothed,  so  as  to  allow  the  chariots  to  charge  over 
it  with  their  full  sweep  and  speed.  As  the  Macedonian  army 
approached  the  Persian,  Alexander  found  that  the  front  of  his 
whole  line  barely  equaled  the  front  of  the  Persian  center,  so 
that  he  was  outflanked  on  his  right  by  the  entire  left  wing  of 
the  enemy,  and  by  their  entire  right  wing  on  his  left.     His 


78  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [331  B.C. 

tactics  were  to  assail  some  one  point  of  the  hostile  army  and 
gain  a  decisive  advantage,  while  he  refused,  as  far  as  possible, 
the  encounter  along  the  rest  of  the  line.  He  therefore  inclined 
his  order  of  march  to  the  right,  so  as  to  enable  his  right  wing 
and  center  to  come  into  collision  with  the  enemy  on  as  favor- 
able terms  as  possible,  though  the  maneuver  might  in  some 
respects  compromise  his  left. 

The  effect  of  this  oblique  movement  was  to  bring  the  pha- 
lanx and  his  own  wing  nearly  beyond  the  limits  of  the  ground 
which  the  Persians  had  prepared  for  the  operations  of  the 
chariots ;  and  Darius,  fearing  to  lose  the  benefit  of  this  arm 
against  the  most  important  parts  of  the  Macedonian  force, 
ordered  the  Scythian  and  Bactrian  cavalry,  who  were  drawn 
up  on  his  extreme  left,  to  charge  round  upon  Alexander's 
right  wing,  and  check  its  further  lateral  progress.  Against 
these  assailants  Alexander  sent  from  his  second  line  Menidas's 
cavalry.  As  these  proved  too  few  to  make  head  against  the 
enemy,  he  ordered  Ariston  also  from  the  second  line  with  his 
light-horse,  and  Cleander  with  his  foot,  in  support  of  Menidas. 
The  Bactrians  and  Scythians  now  began  to  give  way,  but 
Darius  reenforced  them  by  the  mass  of  Bactrian  cavalry  from 
his  main  line,  and  an  obstinate  cavalry  fight  now  took  place. 
The  Bactrians  and  Scythians  were  numerous,  and  were  better 
armed  than  the  horsemen  under  Menidas  and  Ariston ;  and 
the  loss  at  first  was  heaviest  on  the  Macedonian  side.  But 
still  the  European  cavalry  stood  the  charge  of  the  Asiatics, 
and  at  last,  by  their  superior  discipline,  and  by  acting  in 
squadrons  that  supported  each  other,  instead  of  fighting  in  a 
confused  mass  like  the  barbarians,  the  Macedonians  broke 
their  adversaries,  and  drove  them  off  the  field.3 

Darius  now  directed  the  scythe-armed  chariots  to  be  driven 
against  Alexander's  horse-guards  and  the  phalanx ;  and  these 
formidable  vehicles  were  accordingly  sent  rattling  across  the 
plain,  against  the  Macedonian  line.  When  we  remember  the 
alarm  which  the  war  chariots  of  the  Britons  created  among 
Caesar's  legions,  we  shall  not  be  prone  to  deride  this  arm  of 
ancient  warfare  as  always  useless.  The  object  of  the  chariots 
was  to  create  unsteadiness  in  the  ranks  against  which  they 
were  driven,  and  squadrons  of  cavalry  followed  close  upon 
them,  to  profit  by  such  disorder.     But  the  Asiatic  chariots 


33i  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   ARBELA  79 

were  rendered  ineffective  at  Arbela  by  the  light-armed  troops 
whom  Alexander  had  specially  appointed  for  the  service,  and 
who,  wounding  the  horses  and  drivers  with  their  missile  weap- 
ons, and  running  alongside  so  as  to  cut  the  traces  or  seize  the 
reins,  marred  the  intended  charge  ;  and  the  few  chariots  that 
reached  the  phalanx  passed  harmlessly  through  the  intervals 
which  the  spearmen  opened  for  them,  and  were  easily  cap- 
tured in  the  rear. 

A  mass  of  the  Asiatic  cavalry  was  now,  for  the  second  time, 
collected  against  Alexander's  extreme  right,  and  moved  round 
it,  with  the  view  of  gaining  the  flank  of  his  army.  At  the 
critical  moment  Aretes,  with  his  horsemen  from  Alexander's 
second  line,  dashed  on  the  Persian  squadrons  when  their  own 
flanks  were  exposed  by  this  evolution.  While  Alexander  thus 
met  and  baffled  all  the  flanking  attacks  of  the  enemy  with 
troops  brought  up  from  his  second  line,  he  kept  his  own 
horse-guards  and  the  rest  of  the  front  line  of  his  wing  fresh, 
and  ready  to  take  advantage  of  the  first  opportunity  for  strik- 
ing a  decisive  blow.  This  soon  came.  A  large  body  of  horse, 
who  were  posted  on  the  Persian  left  wing  nearest  to  the  cen- 
ter, quitted  their  station,  and  rode  off  to  help  their  comrades 
in  the  cavalry  fight  that  still  was  going  on  at  the  extreme 
right  of  Alexander's  wing  against  the  detachments  from  his 
second  line.  This  made  a  huge  gap  in  the  Persian  array,  and 
into  this  space  Alexander  instantly  dashed  with  his  guard ; 
and  then  pressing  towards  his  left,  he  soon  began  to  make 
havoc  in  the  left  flank  of  the  Persian  center.  The  shield- 
bearing  infantry  now  charged  also  among  the  reeling  masses 
of  the  Asiatics ;  and  five  of  the  brigades  of  the  phalanx,  with 
the  irresistible  might  of  their  sarissas,  bore  down  the  Greek 
mercenaries  of  Darius,  and  dug  their  way  through  the  Persian 
center.  In  the  early  part  of  the  battle,  Darius  had  shown 
skill  and  energy ;  and  he  now  for  some  time  encouraged  his 
men,  by  voice  and  example,  to  keep  firm.  But  the  lances  of 
Alexander's  cavalry  and  the  pikes  of  the  phalanx  now  gleamed 
nearer  and  nearer  to  him.  His  charioteer  was  struck  down 
by  a  javelin  at  his  side  ;  and  at  last  Darius's  nerve  failed  him; 
and,  descending  from  his  chariot,  he  mounted  on  a  fleet  horse 
and  galloped  from  the  plain,  regardless  of  the  state  of  the 
battle  in  other  parts  of  the  field,  where  matters  were  going  on 


80  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [331  B.C. 

much  more  favorably  for  his  cause,  and  where  his  presence 
might  have  done  much  towards  gaining  a  victory. 

Alexander's  operations  with  his  right  and  center  had  ex- 
posed his  left  to  an  immensely  preponderating  force  of  the 
enemy.  Parmenio  kept  out  of  action  as  long  as  possible ; 
but  Mazaeus,  who  commanded  the  Persian  right  wing,  ad- 
vanced against  him,  completely  outflanked  him,  and  pressed 
him  severely  with  reiterated  charges  by  superior  numbers. 
Seeing  the  distress  of  Parmenio's  wing,  Simmias,  who  com- 
manded the  sixth  brigade  of  the  phalanx,  which  was  next  to 
the  left  wing,  did  not  advance  with  the  other  brigades  in  the 
great  charge  upon  the  Persian  center,  but  kept  back  to  cover 
Parmenio's  troops  on  their  right  flank ;  as  otherwise  they 
would  have  been  completely  surrounded  and  cut  off  from  the 
rest  of  the  Macedonian  army.  By  so  doing,  Simmias  had 
unavoidably  opened  a  gap  in  the  Macedonian  left  center ;  and 
a  large  column  of  Indian  and  Persian  horse,  from  the  Per- 
sian right  center,  had  galloped  forward  through  this  interval, 
and  right  through  the  troops  of  the  Macedonian  second  line. 
Instead  of  then  wheeling  round  upon  Parmenio,  or  upon  the 
rear  of  Alexander's  conquering  wing,  the  Indian  and  Persian 
cavalry  rode  straight  on  to  the  Macedonian  camp,  overpow- 
ered the  Thracians  who  were  left  in  charge  of  it,  and  began 
to  plunder.  This  was  stopped  by  the  phalangite  troops  of 
the  second  line,  who,  after  the  enemy's  horsemen  had  rushed 
by  them,  faced  about,  countermarched  upon  the  camp,  killed 
many  of  the  Indians  and  Persians  in  the  act  of  plundering, 
and  forced  the  rest  to  ride  off  again.  Just  at  this  crisis 
Alexander  had  been  recalled  from  his  pursuit  of  Darius  by 
tidings  of  the  distress  of  Parmenio,  and  of  his  inability  to 
bear  up  any  longer  against  the  hot  attacks  of  Mazaeus. 
Taking  his  horse-guards  with  him,  Alexander  rode  towards 
the  part  of  the  field  where  his  left  wing  was  fighting ;  but 
on  his  way  thither  he  encountered  the  Persian  and  Indian 
cavalry,  on  their  return  from  his  camp. 

These  men  now  saw  that  their  only  chance  of  safety  was 
to  cut  their  way  through ;  and  in  one  huge  column  they 
charged  desperately  upon  the  Madcedonians.  There  was 
here  a  close  hand-to-hand  fight,  which  lasted  some  time,  and 
sixty  of  the  royal  horse-guards  fell,  and  three  generals,  who 


331  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   ARBELA  8 1 

fought  close  to  Alexander's  side,  were  wounded.  At  length 
the  Macedonian  discipline  and  valor  again  prevailed,  and  a 
large  number  of  the  Persian  and  Indian  horsemen  were  cut 
down ;  some  few  only  succeeded  in  breaking  through  and 
riding  away.  Relieved  of  these  obstinate  enemies,  Alex- 
ander again  formed  his  horse-guards,  and  led  them  towards 
Parmenio ;  but  by  this  time  that  general  also  was  victorious. 
Probably  the  news  of  Darius's  flight  had  reached  Mazaeus, 
and  had  damped  the  ardor  of  the  Persian  right  wing ;  while 
the  tidings  of  their  comrades'  success  must  have  propor- 
tionally encouraged  the  Macedonian  forces  under  Parmenio. 
His  Thessalian  cavalry  particularly  distinguished  themselves 
by  their  gallantry  and  persevering  good  conduct;  and  by 
the  time  that  Alexander  had  ridden  up  to  Parmenio,  the 
whole  Persian  army  was  in  full  flight  from  the  field. 

It  was  of  the  deepest  importance  to  Alexander  to  secure 
the  person  of  Darius,  and  he  now  urged  on  the  pursuit.  The 
river  Lycus  was  between  the  field  of  battle  and  the  city  of 
Arbela,  whither  the  fugitives  directed  their  course,  and  the 
passage  of  this  river  was  even  more  destructive  to  the  Per- 
sians than  the  swords  and  spears  of  the  Macedonians  had 
been  in  the  engagement.4  The  narrow  bridge  was  soon 
choked  up  by  the  flying  thousands  who  rushed  towards  it,  and 
vast  numbers  of  the  Persians  threw  themselves,  or  were 
hurried  by  others,  into  the  rapid  stream,  and  perished  in  its 
waters.  Darius  had  crossed  it,  and  had  ridden  on  through 
Arbela  without  halting.  Alexander  reached  that  city  on  the 
next  day,  and  made  himself  master  of  all  Darius's  treasure 
and  stores ;  but  the  Persian  king,  unfortunately  for  himself, 
had  fled  too  fast  for  his  conqueror ;  he  had  only  escaped  to 
perish  by  the  treachery  of  his  Bactrian  satrap,  Bessus. 

A  few  days  after  the  battle  Alexander  entered  Babylon, 
"  the  oldest  seat  of  earthly  empire  "  then  in  existence,  as  its 
acknowledged  lord  and  master.  There  were  yet  some  cam- 
paigns of  his  brief  and  bright  career  to  be  accomplished. 
Central  Asia  was  yet  to  witness  the  march  of  his  phalanx. 
He  was  yet  to  effect  that  conquest  of  Afghanistan  in  which 
England  since  has  failed.  His  generalship,  as  well  as  his 
valor,  was  yet  to  be  signalized  on  the  banks  of  the  Hydaspes 
and  the  field  of  Chillianwallah  ;  and  he  was  yet  to  precede 


82  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [331  B.C. 

the  queen  of  England  in  annexing  the  Punjab  to  the  domin- 
ions of  a  European  sovereign.  But  the  crisis  of  his  career 
was  reached;  the  great  object  of  his  mission  was  accom- 
plished ;  and  the  ancient  Persian  empire,  which  once  menaced 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth  with  subjection,  was  irreparably- 
crushed  when  Alexander  had  won  his  crowning  victory  at 
Arbela. 

Notes 

1  The  battle  was  fought  eleven  days  after  an  eclipse  of  the  moon,  which 
gives  the  means  of  fixing  the  precise  date. 

2  Kldber's  arrangement  of  his  troops  at  the  battle  of  Heliopolis,  where, 
with  ten  thousand  Europeans,  he  had  to  encounter  eighty  thousand  Asiatics 
in  an  open  plain,  is  worth  comparing  with  Alexander's  tactics  at  Arbela. 

3  The  best  explanation  of  this  may  be  found  in  Napoleon's  account  of  the 
cavalry  fights  between  the  French  and  the  Mamelukes :  "  Two  Mamelukes 
were  able  to  make  head  against  three  Frenchmen,  because  they  were  better 
armed,  better  mounted,  and  better  trained ;  they  had  two  pairs  of  pistols,  a 
blunderbuss,  a  carbine,  a  helmet  with  a  vizor,  and  a  coat  of  mail ;  they  had 
several  horses,  and  several  attendants  on  foot.  One  hundred  cuirassiers, 
however,  were  not  afraid  of  one  hundred  Mamelukes  ;  three  hundred  could 
beat  an  equal  number,  and  one  thousand  could  easily  put  to  the  rout  fifteen 
hundred,  so  great  is  the  influence  of  tactics,  order,  and  evolutions !  Leclerc 
and  Lasalle  presented  their  men  to  the  Mamelukes  in  several  lines.  When 
the  Arabs  were  on  the  point  of  overwhelming  the  first,  the  second  came  to 
its  assistance  on  the  right  and  left ;  the  Mamelukes  then  halted  and  wheeled, 
in  order  to  turn  the  wings  of  this  new  line  ;  this  moment  was  always  seized 
upon  to  charge  them,  and  they  were  uniformly  broken."  —  Montholon's 
History  of  the  Captivity  of  Napoleon. 

4  I  purposely  omit  any  statement  of  the  loss  in  the  battle.  There  is  a 
palpable  error  of  the  transcribers  in  the  numbers  which  we  find  in  our 
present  manuscripts  of  Arrian  ;  and  Curtius  is  of  no  authority. 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Arbela 
and  the  Battle  of  the  Metaurus 

330  B.C.  The  Lacedaemonians  endeavor  to  create  a  rising 
in  Greece  against  the  Macedonian  power.  They  are  defeated 
by  Antipater,  Alexander's  viceroy ;  and  their  king,  Agis,  falls 
in  the  battle. 

330  to  327.  Alexander's  campaigns  in  Upper  Asia.  "  Hav- 
ing conquered  Darius,  Alexander  pursued  his  way,  encounter- 
ing difficulties  which  would  have  appalled  almost  any  other 
general,  through  Bactriana,  and  taking  Bactra,  or  Zariaspa 
(now  Balkh),  the  chief  city  of  that  province,  where  he  spent 


33i  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   ARBELA  83 

the  winter.  Crossing  the  Oxus,  he  advanced  in  the  follow- 
ing spring  to  Marakanda  (Samarcand)  to  replace  the  loss  of 
horses  which  he  had  sustained  in  crossing  the  Caucasus,  to 
obtain  supplies  from  the  rich  valley  of  Sogd  (the  Mahometan 
Paradise  of  Mader-al-Nahr),  and  to  enforce  the  submission  of 
Transoxiana.  The  northern  limit  of  his  march  is  probably- 
represented  by  the  modern  Uskand,  or  Aderkand,  a  village 
on  the  Iaxartes,  near  the  end  of  the  Ferganah  district.  In 
Margiana  he  founded  another  Alexandria.  Returning  from 
the  north,  he  led  on  his  army  in  the  hope  of  conquering 
India,  till  at  length,  marching  in  a  line  apparently  nearly 
parallel  with  the  Kabul  River,  he  arrived  at  the  celebrated 
rock  Aornos,  the  position  of  which  must  have  been  on  the 
right  bank  of  the  Indus,  at  some  distance  from  Attock; 
and  it  may  perhaps  be  represented  by  the  modern  Akora." 
[Vaux.] 

327,  326.  Alexander  marches  through  Afghanistan  to  the 
Punjab.  He  defeats  Porus.  His  troops  refuse  to  march 
towards  the  Ganges,  and  he  commences  the  descent  of  the 
Indus.  On  his  march  he  attacks  and  subdues  several  Indian 
tribes,  among  others  the  Malli ;  in  the  storming  of  whose  capi- 
tal (Mooltan)  he  is  severely  wounded.  He  directs  his  admiral, 
Nearchus,  to  sail  round  from  the  Indus  to  the  Persian  Gulf, 
and  leads  the  army  back  across  Scinde  and  Beloochistan. 

324.  Alexander  returns  to  Babylon.  "  In  the  tenth  year 
after  he  had  crossed  the  Hellespont,  Alexander,  having  won 
his  vast  dominion,  entered  Babylon ;  and,  resting  from  his 
career  in  that  oldest  seat  of  earthly  empire,  he  steadily  sur- 
veyed the  mass  of  various  nations  which  owned  his  sover- 
eignty, and  revolved  in  his  mind  the  great  work  of  breathing 
into  this  huge  but  inert  body  the  living  spirit  of  Greek  civili- 
zation. In  the  bloom  of  youthful  manhood,  at  the  age  of 
thirty-two,  he  paused  from  the  fiery  speed  of  his  earlier 
course ;  and  for  the  first  time  gave  the  nations  an  opportu- 
nity of  offering  their  homage  before  his  throne.  They  came 
from  all  the  extremities  of  the  earth  to  propitiate  his  anger, 
to  celebrate  his  greatness,  or  to  solicit  his  protection.  .  .  . 
History  may  allow  us  to  think  that  Alexander  and  a  Roman 
ambassador  did  meet  at  Babylon ;  that  the  greatest  man  of 
the  ancient  world  saw  and  spoke  with  a  citizen  of  that  great 


84  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [331  b.c. 

nation  which  was  destined  to  succeed  him  in  his  appointed 
work  and  to  found  a  wider  and  still  more  enduring  empire. 
They  met,  too,  in  Babylon,  almost  beneath  the  shadow  of  the 
temple  of  Bel,  perhaps  the  earliest  monument  ever  raised  by 
human  pride  and  power,  in  a  city  stricken,  as  it  were,  by  the 
word  of  God's  heaviest  judgment,  as  the  symbol  of  greatness 
apart  from  and  opposed  to  goodness."     [Arnold.] 

323.  Alexander  dies  at  Babylon.  On  his  death  being 
known  at  Greece,  the  Athenians,  and  others  of  the  southern 
states,  take  up  arms  to  shake  off  the  domination  of  Macedon. 
They  are  at  first  successful ;  but  the  return  of  some  of  Alex- 
ander's veterans  from  Asia  enables  Antipater  to  prevail  over 
them. 

317  to  289.  Agathocles  is  tyrant  of  Syracuse,  and  carries 
on  repeated  wars  with  the  Carthaginians,  in  the  course  of 
which  (311)  he  invades  Africa  and  reduces  the  Carthaginians 
to  great  distress. 

306.  After  a  long  series  of  wars  with  each  other,  and  after 
all  the  heirs  of  Alexander  had  been  murdered,  his  principal 
surviving  generals  assume  the  title  of  king,  each  over  the 
provinces  which  he  has  occupied.  The  four  chief  among 
them  were  Antigonus,  Ptolemy,  Lysimachus,  and  Seleucus. 
Antipater  was  now  dead,  but  his  son  Cassander  succeeded  to 
his  power  in  Macedonia  and  Greece. 

301.  Seleucus  and  Lysimachus  defeat  Antigonus  at  Ipsus. 
Antigonus  is  killed  in  the  battle. 

280.  Seleucus,  the  last  of  Alexander's  captains,  is  assassi- 
nated. Of  all  Alexander's  successors,  Seleucus  had  formed 
the  most  powerful  empire.  He  had  acquired  all  the  prov- 
inces between  Phrygia  and  the  Indus.  He  extended  his 
dominion  in  India  beyond  the  limits  reached  by  Alexander. 
Seleucus  had  some  sparks  of  his  great  master's  genius  in 
promoting  civilization  and  commerce,  as  well  as  in  gaining 
victories.  Under  his  successors,  the  Seleucidae,  this  vast 
empire  rapidly  diminished;  Bactria  became  independent,  and 
a  separate  dynasty  of  Greek  kings  ruled  there  in  the  year 
125,  when  it  was  overthrown  by  the  Scythian  tribes.  Parthia 
threw  off  its  allegiance  to  the  Seleucidae  in  250  b.c,  and  the 
powerful  Parthian  kingdom,  which  afterwards  proved  so 
formidable  a  foe  to  Rome,  absorbed  nearly  all  the  provinces 


331  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   ARBELA  85 

west  of  the  Euphrates  that  had  obeyed  the  first  Seleucus. 
Before  the  battle  of  Ipsus,  Mithridates,  a  Persian  prince  of 
the  blood  royal  of  the  Achaemenidae,  had  escaped  to  Pontus, 
and  founded  there  the  kingdom  of  that  name. 

Besides  the  kingdom  of  Seleucus,  which,  when  limited  to 
Syria,  Palestine,  and  parts  of  Asia  Minor,  long  survived  the 
most  important  kingdom  formed  by  a  general  of  Alexander, 
was  that  of  the  Ptolemies  in  Egypt.  The  throne  of  Mace- 
donia was  long  and  obstinately  contended  for  by  Cassander, 
Polysperchon,  Lysimachus,  Pyrrhus,  Antigonus,  and  others ; 
but  at  last  was  secured  by  the  dynasty  of  Antigonus  Gonatas. 
The  old  republics  of  Southern  Greece  suffered  severely  dur- 
ing these  tumults,  and  the  only  Greek  states  that  showed  any 
strength  and  spirit  were  the  cities  of  the  Achaean  League,  the 
iEtolians,  and  the  islanders  of  Rhodes. 

290.  Rome  had  now  thoroughly  subdued  the  Samnites  and 
the  Etruscans,  and  had  gained  numerous  victories  over  the 
Cisalpine  Gauls.  Wishing  to  confirm  her  dominion  in  Lower 
Italy,  she  became  entangled  in  a  war  with  Pyrrhus,  fourth 
king  of  Epirus,  who  was  called  over  by  the  Tarentines  to  aid 
them.  Pyrrhus  was  at  first  victorious,  but  in  the  year  275 
was  defeated  by  the  Roman  legions  in  a  pitched  battle.  He 
returned  to  Greece,  remarking  of  Sicily,  Oiav  airoXeiTroixev 
KapxrjSoviois  /cal  'Pco/naiot?  waXaiarpav,  "  Rome  becomes 
mistress  of  all  Italy  from  the  Rubicon  to  the  straits  of 
Messina." 

264.  The  first  Punic  war  begins.  Its  primary  cause  was 
the  desire  of  both  the  Romans  and  the  Carthaginians  to 
possess  themselves  of  Sicily.  The  Romans  form  a  fleet,  and 
successfully  compete  with  the  marine  of  Carthage.1  During 
the  latter  half  of  the  war  the  military  genius  of  Hamilcar 
Barca  sustains  the  Carthaginian  cause  in  Sicily.  At  the  end 
of  twenty-four  years  the  Carthaginians  sue  for  peace,  though 
their  aggregate  loss  in  ships  and  men  had  been  less  than  that 
sustained  by  the  Romans  since  the  beginning  of  the  war. 
Sicily  becomes  a  Roman  province. 

240  to  218.  The  Carthaginian  mercenaries  who  had  been 
brought  back  from  Sicily  to  Africa  mutiny  against  Carthage, 
and  nearly  succeed  in  destroying  her.  After  a  sanguinary 
and    desperate    struggle,     Hamilcar     Barca    crushes   them. 


86  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [331  B.C. 

During  this  season  of  weakness  to  Carthage,  Rome  takes 
from  her  the  island  of  Sardinia.  Hamilcar  Barca  forms  the 
project  of  obtaining  compensation  by  conquests  in  Spain,  and 
thus  enabling  Carthage  to  renew  the  struggle  with  Rome. 
He  takes  Hannibal  (then  a  child)  to  Spain  with  him.  He 
and  (after  his  death)  his  brother  win  great  part  of  Southern 
Spain  to  the  Carthaginian  interest.  Hannibal  obtains  the 
command  of  the  Carthaginian  armies  in  Spain,  221  B.C.,  being 
then  twenty-six  years  old.  He  attacks  Saguntum,  a  city  on 
the  Ebro  in  alliance  with  Rome,  which  is  the  immediate  pre- 
text for  the  second  Punic  war. 

During  this  interval  Rome  had  to  sustain  a  storm  from  the 
north.  The  Cisalpine  Gauls,  in  226,  formed  an  alliance  with 
one  of  the  fiercest  tribes  of  their  brethren  north  of  the  Alps, 
and  began  a  furious  war  against  the  Romans,  which  lasted 
six  years.  The  Romans  gave  them  several  severe  defeats, 
and  took  from  them  part  of  their  territories  near  the  Po.  It 
was  on  this  occasion  that  the  Roman  colonies  of  Cremona 
and  Placentia  were  founded,  the  latter  of  which  did  such 
essential  service  to  Rome  in  the  second  Punic  war,  by  the 
resistance  which  it  made  to  the  army  of  Hasdrubal.  A 
muster-roll  was  made  in  this  war  of  the  effective  military 
force  of  the  Romans  themselves,  and  of  those  Italian  states 
that  were  subject  to  them.  The  return  showed  a  force  of 
seven  hundred  thousand  foot  and  seventy  thousand  horse. 

218.    Hannibal  crosses  the  Alps  and  invades  Italy. 

1  Note.  —  There  is  at  this  present  moment  [written  in  June,  1851]  in  the 
Great  Exhibition  at  Hyde  Park  a  model  of  a  piratical  galley  of  Labuan,  part 
of  the  mast  of  which  can  be  let  down  on  an  enemy  and  form  a  bridge  for 
boarders.  It  is  worth  while  to  compare  this  with  the  account  in  Polybius 
of  the  boarding  bridges  which  the  Roman  admiral,  Duilius,  affixed  to  the 
masts  of  his  galleys,  and  by  means  of  which  he  won  his  great  victory  over 
the  Carthaginian  fleet. 


207  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   THE   METAURUS  8y 


CHAPTER   IV 

The  Battle  of  the  Metaurus,  207  B.C. 

"  Quid  debeas,  O  Roma,  Neronibus, 
Testis  Metaurum  flumen,  et  Hasdrubal 
Devictus,  et  pulcher  fugatis 
Me  dies  Latio  tenebris. 

"  Qui  primus  alma  risit  adorea ; 
Dirus  per  urbes  Afer  ut  Italas, 
Ceu  rlamma  per  taedas,  vel  Eurus 
Per  Siculus  equitavit  undas."  —  HORACE. 

"...  The  consul  Nero,  who  made  the  unequaled  march  which  deceived 
Hannibal,  and  defeated  Hasdrubal,  thereby  accomplishing  an  achievement 
almost  unrivaled  in  military  annals.  The  first  intelligence  of  his  return, 
to  Hannibal,  was  the  sight  of  Hasdrubal's  head  thrown  into  his  camp. 
When  Hannibal  saw  this,  he  exclaimed,  with  a  sigh,  that  '  Rome  would 
now  be  the  mistress  of  the  world.'  To  this  victory  of  Nero's  it  might  be 
owing  that  his  imperial  namesake  reigned  at  all.  But  the  infamy  of  the 
one  has  eclipsed  the  glory  of  the  other.  When  the  name  of  Nero  is  heard, 
who  thinks  of  the  consul  ?     But  such  are  human  things."  —  Byron. 

ABOUT  midway  between  Rimini  and  Ancona  a  little  river 
falls  into  the  Adriatic,  after  traversing  one  of  those  dis- 
tricts of  Italy  in  which  a  vain  attempt  has  lately  been 
made  to  revive,  after  long  centuries  of  servitude  and  shame, 
the  spirit  of  Italian  nationality  and  the  energy  of  free  institu- 
tions. That  stream  is  still  called  the  Metauro ;  and  wakens 
by  its  name  recollections  of  the  resolute  daring  of  ancient 
Rome,  and  of  the  slaughter  that  stained  its  current  two 
thousand  and  sixty-three  years  ago,  when  the  combined  con- 
sular armies  of  Livius  and  Nero  encountered  and  crushed  near 
its  banks  the  varied  hosts  which  Hannibal's  brother  was  lead- 
ing from  the  Pyrenees,  the  Rhone,  the  Alps,  and  the  Po,  to  aid 
the  great  Carthaginian  in  his  stern  struggle  to  annihilate  the 
growing  might  of  the  Roman  republic,  and  make  the  Punic 
power  supreme  over  all  the  nations  of  the  world. 


88  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [207  B.C. 

The  Roman  historian,  Livy,  who  termed  that  struggle  the 
most  memorable  of  all  wars  that  ever  were  carried  on,  wrote 
in  no  spirit  of  exaggeration.  For  it  is  not  in  ancient,  but  in 
modern  history  that  parallels  for  its  incidents  and  its  heroes 
are  to  be  found.  The  similitude  between  the  contest  which 
Rome  maintained  against  Hannibal,  and  that  which  England 
was  for  many  years  engaged  in  against  Napoleon,  has  not 
passed  unobserved  by  recent  historians.  "Twice,"  says 
Arnold,  "  has  there  been  witnessed  the  struggle  of  the  high- 
est individual  genius  against  the  resources  and  institutions  of 
a  great  nation ;  and  in  both  cases  the  nation  has  been  victo- 
rious. For  seventeen  years  Hannibal  strove  against  Rome ; 
for  sixteen  years  Napoleon  Bonaparte  strove  against  Eng- 
land :  the  efforts  of  the  first  ended  in  Zama,  those  of  the 
second  in  Waterloo."  One  point,  however,  of  the  similitude 
between  the  two  wars  has  scarcely  been  adequately  dwelt  on. 
That  is,  the  remarkable  parallel  between  the  Roman  general 
who  finally  defeated  the  great  Carthaginian,  and  the  English 
general  who  gave  the  last  deadly  overthrow  to  the  French 
emperor.  Scipio  and  Wellington  both  held  for  many  years 
commands  of  high  importance,  but  distant  from  the  main 
theaters  of  warfare.  The  same  country  was  the  scene  of  the 
principal  military  career  of  each.  It  was  in  Spain  that 
Scipio,  like  Wellington,  successively  encountered  and  over- 
threw nearly  all  the  subordinate  generals  of  the  enemy,  before 
being  opposed  to  the  chief  champion  and  conqueror  himself. 
Both  Scipio  and  Wellington  restored  their  countrymen's  con- 
fidence in  arms,  when  shaken  by  a  series  of  reverses.  And 
each  of  them  closed  a  long  and  perilous  war  by  a  complete 
and  overwhelming  defeat  of  the  chosen  leader  and  the  chosen 
veterans  of  the  foe. 

Nor  is  the  parallel  between  them  limited  to  their  military 
characters  and  exploits.  Scipio,  like  Wellington,  became  an 
important  leader  of  the  aristocratic  party  among  his  country- 
men, and  was  exposed  to  the  unmeasured  invectives  of  the 
violent  section  of  his  political  antagonists.  When,  early  in  the 
last  reign,  an  infuriated  mob  assaulted  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton in  the  streets  of  the  English  capital  on  the  anniversary  of 
Waterloo,  England  was  even  more  disgraced  by  that  outrage 
than  Rome  was  by  the  factious  accusations  which  demagogues 


207  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   THE   METAURUS  89 

brought  against  Scipio,  but  which  he  proudly  repelled  on  the 
day  of  trial  by  reminding  the  assembled  people  that  it  was  the 
anniversary  of  the  battle  of  Zama.  Happily,  a  wiser  and  a 
better  spirit  has  now  for  years  pervaded  all  classes  of  our 
community ;  and  we  shall  be  spared  the  ignominy  of  having 
worked  out  to  the  end  the  parallel  of  national  ingratitude. 
Scipio  died  a  voluntary  exile  from  the  malevolent  turbulence 
of  Rome.  Englishmen  of  all  ranks  and  politics  have  now 
long  united  in  affectionate  admiration  of  our  modern  Scipio ; 
and  even  those  who  have  most  widely  differed  from  the  duke 
on  legislative  or  administrative  questions  forget  what  they 
deem  the  political  errors  of  that  time-honored  head,  while  they 
gratefully  call  to  mind  the  laurels  that  have  wreathed  it. 

Scipio  at  Zama  trampled  in  the  dust  the  power  of  Carthage ; 
but  that  power  had  been  already  irreparably  shattered  in  another 
field  where  neither  Scipio  nor  Hannibal  commanded.  When 
the  Metaurus  witnessed  the  defeat  and  death  of  Hasdrubal, 
it  witnessed  the  ruin  of  the  scheme  by  which  alone  Carthage 
could  hope  to  organize  decisive  success  —  the  scheme  of  en- 
veloping Rome  at  once  from  the  north  and  the  south  of  Italy 
by  chosen  armies,  led  by  two  sons  of  Hamilcar.  That  battle 
was  the  determining  crisis  of  the  contest,  not  merely  between 
Rome  and  Carthage,  but  between  the  two  great  families  of  the 
world,  which  then  made  Italy  the  arena  of  their  oft-renewed 
contest  for  preeminence. 

The  French  historian  Michelet,  whose  "  Histoire  Romaine  " 
would  have  been  invaluable  if  the  general  industry  and  accu- 
racy of  the  writer  had  in  any  degree  equaled  his  originality 
and  brilliancy,  eloquently  remarks  :  "  It  is  not  without  reason 
that  so  universal  and  vivid  a  remembrance  of  the  Punic  wars 
has  dwelt  in  the  memories  of  men.  They  formed  no  mere 
struggle  to  determine  the  lot  of  two  cities  or  two  empires  ;  but 
it  was  a  strife  on  the  event  of  which  depended  the  fate  of  two 
races  of  mankind,  whether  the  dominion  of  the  world  should 
belong  to  the  Indo-Germanic  or  to  the  Semitic  family  of  nations. 
Bear  in  mind  that  the  first  of  these  comprises,  besides  the 
Indians  and  the  Persians,  the  Greeks,  the  Romans,  and  the 
Germans.  In  the  other  are  ranked  the  Jews  and  the  Arabs, 
the  Phoenicians  and  the  Carthaginians.  On  the  one  side  is 
the  genius  of  heroism,  of  art,  and  legislation  ;  on  the  other  is 


9°  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [207  b.c. 

the  spirit  of  industry,  of  commerce,  of  navigation.  The  two 
opposite  races  have  everywhere  come  into  contact,  everywhere 
into  hostility.  In  the  primitive  history  of  Persia  and  Chaldea, 
the  heroes  are  perpetually  engaged  in  combat  with  their  indus- 
trious and  perfidious  neighbors.  The  struggle  is  renewed 
between  the  Phoenicians  and  the  Greeks  on  every  coast  of  the 
Mediterranean.  The  Greek  supplants  the  Phoenician  in  all 
his  factories,  all  his  colonies  in  the  East ;  soon  will  the  Roman 
come,  and  do  likewise  in  the  West.  Alexander  did  far  more 
against  Tyre  than  Salmanasar  or  Nabuchodonosor  had  done. 
Not  content  with  crushing  her,  he  took  care  that  she  never 
should  revive ;  for  he  founded  Alexandria  as  her  substitute, 
and  changed  forever  the  track  of  commerce  of  the  world. 
There  remained  Carthage,  — the  great  Carthage,  and  her 
mighty  empire,  —  mighty  in  a  far  different  degree  than  Phoe- 
nicia's had  been.  Rome  annihilated  it.  Then  occurred  that 
which  has  no  parallel  in  history  :  an  entire  civilization  per- 
ished at  one  blow  —  vanished,  like  a  falling  star.  The  '  Peri- 
plus  '  of  Hanno,  a  few  coins,  a  score  of  lines  in  Plautus,  and, 
lo,  all  that  remains  of  the  Carthaginian  world  ! 

"  Many  generations  must  needs  pass  away  before  the  strug- 
gle between  the  two  races  could  be  renewed ;  and  the  Arabs, 
that  formidable  rear-guard  of  the  Semitic  world,  dashed  forth 
from  their  deserts.  The  conflict  between  the  two  races  then 
became  the  conflict  of  two  religions.  Fortunate  was  it  that 
those  daring  Saracenic  cavaliers  encountered  in  the  East  the 
impregnable  walls  of  Constantinople,  in  the  West  the  chival- 
rous valor  of  Charles  Martel  and  the  sword  of  the  Cid.  The 
crusades  were  the  natural  reprisals  for  the  Arab  invasions, 
and  form  the  last  epoch  of  that  great  struggle  between  the 
two  principal  families  of  the  human  race." 

It  is  difficult,  amid  the  glimmering  light  supplied  by  the 
allusions  of  the  classical  writers,  to  gain  a  full  idea  of  the 
character  and  institutions  of  Rome's  great  rival.  But  we  can 
perceive  how  inferior  Carthage  was  to  her  competitor  in  mili- 
tary resources ;  and  how  far  less  fitted  than  Rome  she  was 
to  become  the  founder  of  centralized  and  centralizing  domin- 
ion that  should  endure  for  centuries,  and  fuse  into  imperial 
unity  the  narrow  nationalities  of  the  ancient  races  that  dwelt 
around  and  near  the  shores  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 


207  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF  THE   METAURUS  91 

Carthage  was  originally  neither  the  most  ancient  nor  the 
most  powerful  of  the  numerous  colonies  which  the  Phoeni- 
cians planted  on  the  coast  of  Northern  Africa.  But  her  ad- 
vantageous position,  the  excellence  of  her  constitution  (of 
which,  though  ill-informed  as  to  its  details,  we  know  that  it 
commanded  the  admiration  of  Aristotle),  and  the  commercial 
and  political  energy  of  her  citizens  gave  her  the  ascendency 
over  Hippo,  Utica,  Leptis,  and  her  other  sister  Phoenician 
cities  in  those  regions ;  and  she  finally  reduced  them  to  a  con- 
dition of  dependency,  similar  to  that  which  the  subject  allies 
of  Athens  occupied  relatively  to  that  once  imperial  city.  When 
Tyre  and  Sidon  and  the  other  cities  of  Phoenicia  itself  sank 
from  independent  republics  into  mere  vassal  states  of  the  great 
Asiatic  monarchies,  and  obeyed  by  turns  a  Babylonian,  a  Per- 
sian, and  a  Macedonian  master,  their  power  and  their  traffic 
rapidly  declined ;  and  Carthage  succeeded  to  the  important 
maritime  and  commercial  character  which  they  had  previ- 
ously maintained.  The  Carthaginians  did  not  seek  to 
compete  with  the  Greeks  on  the  northeastern  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean,  or  in  the  three  inland  seas  which  are  con- 
nected with  it ;  but  they  maintained  an  active  intercourse 
with  the  Phoenicians,  and  through  them  with  Lower  and  Cen- 
tral Asia ;  and  they,  and  they  alone,  after  the  decline  and  fall 
of  Tyre,  navigated  the  waters  of  the  Atlantic.  They  had  the 
monopoly  of  all  the  commerce  of  the  world  that  was  carried 
on  beyond  the  straits  of  Gibraltar.  We  have  yet  extant  (in 
a  Greek  translation)  the  narrative  of  the  voyage  of  Hanno, 
one  of  their  admirals,  along  the  western  coast  of  Africa  as 
far  as  Sierra  Leone.  And  in  the  Latin  poem  of  Festus  Avie- 
nus  frequent  references  are  made  to  the  records  of  the  voyages 
of  another  celebrated  Carthaginian  admiral,  Himilco,  who  had 
explored  the  northwestern  coast  of  Europe.  Our  own  islands 
are  mentioned  by  Himilco  as  the  lands  of  the  Hiberni  and  the 
Albioni.  It  is  indeed  certain  that  the  Carthaginians  frequented 
the  Cornish  coast  (as  the  Phoenicians  had  done  before  them) 
for  the  purpose  of  procuring  tin ;  and  there  is  every  reason 
to  believe  that  they  sailed  as  far  as  the  coasts  of  the  Baltic 
for  amber.  When  it  is  remembered  that  the  mariner's  com- 
pass was  unknown  in  those  ages,  the  boldness  and  skill  of  the 
seamen  of  Carthage,  and  the  enterprise  of  ner  merchants,  may 


92  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [207  B.C. 

be  paralleled  with  any  achievements  that  the  history  of  modern 
navigation  and  commerce  can  supply. 

In  their  Atlantic  voyages  along  the  African  shores,  the 
Carthaginians  followed  the  double  object  of  traffic  and  colo- 
nization. The  numerous  settlements  that  were  planted  by 
them  along  the  coast  from  Morocco  to  Senegal  provided  for 
the  needy  members  of  the  constantly  increasing  population 
of  a  great  commercial  capital ;  and  also  strengthened  the 
influence  which  Carthage  exercised  among  the  tribes  of  the 
African  coast.  Besides  her  fleets,  her  caravans  gave  her  a 
large  and  lucrative  trade  with  the  native  Africans ;  nor  must 
we  limit  our  belief  of  the  extent  of  the  Carthaginian  trade 
with  the  tribes  of  Central  and  Western  Africa  by  the  narrow- 
ness of  the  commercial  intercourse  which  civilized  nations  of 
modern  times  have  been  able  to  create  in  those  regions. 

Although  essentially  a  mercantile  and  seafaring  people,  the 
Carthaginians  by  no  means  neglected  agriculture.  On  the 
contrary,  the  whole  of  their  territory  was  cultivated  like  a 
garden.  The  fertility  of  the  soil  repaid  the  skill  and  toil  be- 
stowed on  it ;  and  every  invader,  from  Agathocles  to  Scipio 
^Emilianus,  was  struck  with  admiration  at  the  rich  pasture- 
lands  carefully  irrigated,  the  abundant  harvests,  the  luxuriant 
vineyards,  the  plantations  of  fig  and  olive  trees,  the  thriving 
villages,  the  populous  towns,  and  the  splendid  villas  of  the 
wealthy  Carthaginians,  through  which  his  march  lay  as  long 
as  he  was  on  Carthaginian  ground. 

The  Carthaginians  abandoned  the  vEgean  and  the  Pontus 
to  the  Greeks,  but  they  were  by  no  means  disposed  to  relin- 
quish to  those  rivals  the  commerce  and  the  dominion  of  the 
coasts  of  the  Mediterranean  westward  of  Italy.  For  centuries 
the  Carthaginians  strove  to  make  themselves  masters  of  the 
islands  that  lie  between  Italy  and  Spain.  They  acquired  the 
Balearic  Islands,  where  the  principal  harbor,  Port  Mahon,  still 
bears  the  name  of  the  Carthaginian  admiral.  They  succeeded 
in  reducing  the  greater  part  of  Sardinia ;  but  Sicily  could  never 
be  brought  into  their  power.  They  repeatedly  invaded  that 
island,  and  nearly  overran  it;  but  the  resistance  which  was 
opposed  to  them  by  the  Syracusans,  under  Gelon,  Dionysius, 
Timoleon,  and  Agathocles,  preserved  the  island  from  becom- 
ing Punic,  though  many  of  its  cities  remained  under  the  Car- 


207  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   THE   METAURUS  93 

thaginian  rule,  until  Rome  finally  settled  the  question  to 
whom  Sicily  was  to  belong  by  conquering  it  for  herself. 

With  so  many  elements  of  success — with  almost  unbounded 
wealth,  with  commercial  and  maritime  activity,  with  a  fertile 
territory,  with  a  capital  city  of  almost  impregnable  strength, 
with  a  constitution  that  insured  for  centuries  the  blessings  of 
social  order,  with  an  aristocracy  singularly  fertile  in  men  of 
the  highest  genius  —  Carthage  yet  failed  signally  and  calami- 
tously in  her  contest  for  power  with  Rome.  One  of  the  im- 
mediate causes  of  this  may  seem  to  have  been  the  want  of 
firmness  among  her  citizens,  which  made  them  terminate  the 
first  Punic  war  by  begging  peace,  sooner  than  endure  any 
longer  the  hardships  and  burdens  caused  by  a  state  of  war- 
fare, although  their  antagonists  had  suffered  far  more  severely 
than  themselves.  Another  cause  was  the  spirit  of  faction 
among  their  leading  men,  which  prevented  Hannibal  in  the 
second  war  from  being  properly  reenforced  and  supported. 
But  there  were  also  more  general  causes  why  Carthage  proved 
inferior  to  Rome.  These  were  her  position  relatively  to  the 
mass  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  which  she  ruled,  and 
her  habit  of  trusting  to  mercenary  armies  in  her  wars. 

Our  clearest  information  as  to  the  different  races  of  men  in 
and  about  Carthage  is  derived  from  Diodorus  Siculus.  That 
historian  enumerates  four  different  races :  first,  he  mentions 
the  Phoenicians  who  dwelt  in  Carthage ;  next,  he  speaks  of 
the  Liby-Phcenicians  —  these,  he  tells  us,  dwelt  in  many 
of  the  maritime  cities,  and  were  connected  by  intermarriages 
with  the  Phoenicians,  which  was  the  cause  of  their  compound 
name;  thirdly,  he  mentions  the  Libyans,  the  bulk  and  the 
most  ancient  part  of  the  population,  hating  the  Carthaginians 
intensely  on  account  of  the  oppressiveness  of  their  domina- 
tion ;  lastly,  he  names  the  Numidians,  the  nomad  tribes  of  the 
frontier. 

It  is  evident,  from  this  description,  that  the  native  Libyans 
were  a  subject  class,  without  franchise  or  political  rights;  and, 
accordingly,  we  find  no  instance  specified  in  history  of  a 
Libyan  holding  political  office  or  military  command.  The 
half-castes,  the  Liby-Phoenicians,  seem  to  have  been  some- 
times sent  out  as  colonists  ;  but  it  may  be  inferred,  from  what 
Diodorus  says  of  their  residence,  that  they  had  not  the  right 


94  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [207  B.C. 

of  the  citizenship  of  Carthage  ;  and  only  a  solitary  case  occurs 
of  one  of  this;  race  being  entrusted  with  authority,  and  that, 
too,  not  emanating  from  the  home  government.  This  is  the 
instance  of  the  officer  sent  by  Hannibal  to  Sicily,  after  the 
fall  of  Syracuse ;  whom  Polybius  calls  Myttinus  the  Libyan, 
but  whom,  from  the  fuller  account  in  Livy,  we  find  to  have 
been  a  Liby-Phcenician ;  and  it  is  expressly  mentioned  what 
indignation  was  felt  by  the  Carthaginian  commanders  in  the 
island  that  this  half-caste  should  control  their  operations. 

With  respect  to  the  composition  of  their  armies,  it  is  observ- 
able that,  though  thirsting  for  extended  empire,  and  though 
some  of  the  leading  men  became  generals  of  the  highest 
order,  the  Carthaginians,  as  a  people,  were  anything  but  per- 
sonally warlike.  As  long  as  they  could  hire  mercenaries  to 
fight  for  them,  they  had  little  appetite  for  the  irksome  train- 
ing, and  they  grudged  the  loss  of  valuable  time  which  military 
service  would  have  entailed  on  themselves. 

As  Michelet  remarks,  "  The  life  of  an  industrious  merchant, 
of  a  Carthaginian,  was  too  precious  to  be  risked,  as  long  as  it 
was  possible  to  substitute  advantageously  for  it  that  of  a  bar- 
barian from  Spain  or  Gaul.  Carthage  knew,  and  could  tell 
to  a  drachma,  what  the  life  of  a  man  of  each  nation  came  to. 
A  Greek  was  worth  more  than  a  Campanian,  a  Campanian 
worth  more  than  a  Gaul  or  a  Spaniard.  When  once  this 
tariff  of  blood  was  correctly  made  out,  Carthage  began  a  war 
as  a  mercantile  speculation.  She  tried  to  make  conquests  in 
the  hope  of  getting  new  mines  to  work,  or  to  open  fresh  mar- 
kets for  her  exports.  In  one  venture  she  could  afford  to 
spend  fifty  thousand  mercenaries ;  in  another,  rather  more. 
If  the  returns  were  good,  there  was  no  regret  felt  for  the 
capital  that  had  been  lavished  in  the  investment;  more  money 
got  more  men,  and  all  went  on  well." 

Armies  composed  of  foreign  mercenaries  have,  in  all  ages, 
been  as  formidable  to  their  employers  as  to  the  enemy  against 
whom  they  were  directed.  We  know  of  one  occasion  (between 
the  first  and  second  Punic  wars)  when  Carthage  was  brought 
to  the  very  brink  of  destruction  by  a  revolt  of  her  foreign 
troops.  Other  mutinies  of  the  same  kind  must  from  time  to 
time  have  occurred.  Probably  one  of  these  was  the  cause  of 
the  comparative  weakness  of   Carthage  at  the  time  of   the 


207  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   THE   METAURUS  95 

Athenian  expedition  against  Syracuse ;  so  different  from  the 
energy  with  which  she  attacked  Gelon  half  a  century  earlier, 
and  Dionysius  half  a  century  later.  And  even  when  we  con- 
sider her  armies  with  reference  only  to  their  efficiency  in 
warfare,  we  perceive  at  once  the  inferiority  of  such  bands  of 
condottieri,  brought  together  without  any  common  bond  of 
origin,  tactics,  or  cause,  to  the  legions  of  Rome,  which  at  the 
time  of  the  Punic  wars  were  raised  from  the  very  flower  of  a 
hardy  agricultural  population,  trained  in  the  strictest  disci- 
pline, habituated  to  victory,  and  animated  by  the  most  resolute 
patriotism.  And  this  shows  also  the  transcendency  of  the 
genius  of  Hannibal,  which  could  form  such  discordant  ma- 
terials into  a  compact  organized  force,  and  inspire  them  with 
the  spirit  of  patient  discipline  and  loyalty  to  their  chief ;  so 
that  they  were  true  to  him  in  his  adverse  as  well  as  in  his 
prosperous  fortunes ;  and  throughout  the  checkered  series  of 
his  campaigns  no  panic  rout  ever  disgraced  a  division  under 
his  command ;  no  mutiny,  or  even  attempt  at  mutiny,  was 
ever  known  in  his  camp ;  and,  finally,  after  fifteen  years  of 
Italian  warfare,  his  men  followed  their  old  leader  to  Zama, 
"with  no  fear  and  little  hope"  \l  and  there,  on  that  disastrous 
field,  stood  firm  around  him,  his  Old  Guard,  till  Scipio's 
Numidian  allies  came  up  on  their  flank,  when  at  last,  sur- 
rounded and  overpowered,  the  veteran  battalions  sealed  their 
devotion  to  their  general  with  their  blood. 

"  But  if  Hannibal's  genius  may  be  likened  to  the  Homeric 
god,  who,  in  his  hatred  to  the  Trojans,  rises  from  the  deep  to 
rally  the  fainting  Greeks,  and  to  lead  them  against  the  enemy, 
so  the  calm  courage  with  which  Hector  met  his  more  than 
human  adversary  in  his  country's  cause  is  no  unworthy  image 
of  the  unyielding  magnanimity  displayed  by  the  aristocracy  of 
Rome.  As  Hannibal  utterly  eclipses  Carthage,  so,  on  the 
contrary,  Fabius,  Marcellus,  Claudius  Nero,  even  Scipio  him- 
self, are  as  nothing  when  compared  to  the  spirit,  and  wisdom, 
and  power  of  Rome.  The  senate,  which  voted  its  thanks  to 
its  political  enemy,  Varro,  after  his  disastrous  defeat,  'because 
he  had  not  despaired  of  the  commonwealth,'  and  which  dis- 
dained either  to  solicit,  or  to  reprove,  or  to  threaten,  or  in  any 
way  to  notice  the  twelve  colonies  which  had  refused  their 
customary  supplies  of  men  for  the  army,  is  far  more  to  be 


96  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [207  B.C. 

honored  than  the  conqueror  of  Zama.  This  we  should  the 
more  carefully  bear  in  mind,  because  our  tendency  is  to 
admire  individual  greatness  far  more  than  national ;  and,  as 
no  single  Roman  will  bear  comparison  to  Hannibal,  we  are 
apt  to  murmur  at  the  event  of  the  contest,  and  to  think  that 
the  victory  was  awarded  to  the  least  worthy  of  the  combatants. 
On  the  contrary,  never  was  the  wisdom  of  God's  providence 
more  manifest  than  in  the  issue  of  the  struggle  between  Rome 
and  Carthage.  It  was  clearly  for  the  good  of  mankind  that 
Hannibal  should  be  conquered :  his  triumph  would  have  stopped 
the  progress  of  the  world.  For  great  men  can  only  act  per- 
manently by  forming  great  nations ;  and  no  one  man,  even 
though  it  were  Hannibal  himself,  can  in  one  generation  effect 
such  a  work.  But  where  the  nation  has  been  merely  en- 
kindled for  a  while  by  a  great  man's  spirit,  the  light  passes 
away  with  him  who  communicated  it ;  and  the  nation,  when 
he  is  gone,  is  like  a  dead  body,  to  which  magic  power  had, 
for  a  moment,  given  unnatural  life :  when  the  charm  has 
ceased,  the  body  is  cold  and  stiff  as  before.  He  who  grieves 
over  the  battle  of  Zama  should  carry  on  his  thoughts  to  a 
period  thirty  years  later,  when  Hannibal  must,  in  the  course 
of  nature,  have  been  dead,  and  consider  how  the  isolated 
Phoenician  city  of  Carthage  was  fitted  to  receive  and  to  con- 
solidate the  civilization  of  Greece,  or  by  its  laws  and  institu- 
tions to  bind  together  barbarians  of  every  race  and  language 
into  an  organized  empire,  and  prepare  them  for  becoming, 
when  that  empire  was  dissolved,  the  free  members  of  the 
commonwealth  of  Christian  Europe."     [Arnold.] 

It  was  in  the  spring  of  207  B.C.  that  Hasdrubal,  after  skil- 
fully disentangling  himself  from  the  Roman  forces  in  Spain, 
and  after  a  march,  conducted  with  great  judgment  and  little 
loss,  through  the  interior  of  Gaul  and  the  passes  of  the  Alps, 
appeared  in  the  country  that  now  is  the  north  of  Lombardy, 
at  the  head  of  troops  which  he  had  partly  brought  out  of 
Spain,  and  partly  levied  among  the  Gauls  and  Ligurians  on 
his  way.  At  this  time  Hannibal,  with  his  unconquered,  and 
seemingly  unconquerable,  army,  had  been  eleven  years  in 
Italy,  executing  with  strenuous  ferocity  the  vow  of  hatred  to 
Rome  which  had  been  sworn  by  him  while  yet  a  child  at  the 
bidding  of  his  father,   Hamilcar ;    who,  as  he  boasted,  had 


207  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   THE    METAURUS  97 

trained  up  his  three  sons,  Hannibal,  Hasdrubal,  and  Mago, 
like  three  lion's  whelps,  to  prey  upon  the  Romans.  But 
Hannibal's  latter  campaigns  had  not  been  signalized  by  any 
such  great  victories  as  marked  the  first  years  of  his  invasion 
of  Italy.  The  stern  spirit  of  Roman  resolution,  ever  highest 
in  disaster  and  danger,  had  neither  bent  nor  despaired  be- 
neath the  merciless  blows  which  "  the  dire  African  "  dealt  her 
in  rapid  succession  at  Trebia,  at  Thrasymene,  and  at  Cannae. 
Her  population  was  thinned  by  repeated  slaughter  in  the 
field ;  poverty  and  actual  scarcity  wore  down  the  survivors, 
through  the  fearful  ravages  which  Hannibal's  cavalry  spread 
through  their  corn  fields,  their  pasture-lands,  and  their  vine- 
yards ;  many  of  her  allies  went  over  to  the  invader's  side ; 
and  new  clouds  of  foreign  war  threatened  her  from  Mace- 
donia and  Gaul.  But  Rome  receded  not.  Rich  and  poor 
among  her  citizens  vied  with  each  other  in  devotion  to  their 
country.  The  wealthy  placed  their  stores,  and  all  placed 
their  lives,  at  the  state's  disposal.  And  though  Hannibal 
could  not  be  driven  out  of  Italy,  though  every  year  brought 
its  sufferings  and  sacrifices,  Rome  felt  that  her  constancy  had 
not  been  exerted  in  vain.  If  she  was  weakened  by  the  con- 
tinual strife,  so  was  Hannibal  also ;  and  it  was  clear  that  the 
unaided  resources  of  his  army  were  unequal  to  the  task  of 
her  destruction.  The  single  deerhound  could  not  pull  down 
the  quarry  which  he  had  so  furiously  assailed.  Rome  not 
only  stood  fiercely  at  bay,  but  had  pressed  back  and  gored 
her  antagonist,  that  still,  however,  watched  her  in  act  to 
spring.  She  was  weary,  and  bleeding  at  every  pore ;  and 
there  seemed  to  be  little  hope  of  her  escape,  if  the  other 
hound  of  old  Hamilcar's  race  should  come  up  in  time  to  aid 
his  brother  in  the  death-grapple. 

Hasdrubal  had  commanded  the  Carthaginian  armies  in 
Spain  for  some  time,  with  varying  but  generally  unpropitious 
fortune.  He  had  not  the  full  authority  over  the  Punic  forces 
in  that  country  which  his  brother  and  his  father  had  previ- 
ously exercised.  The  faction  at  Carthage,  which  was  at  feud 
with  his  family,  succeeded  in  fettering  and  interfering  with 
his  power ;  and  other  generals  were  from  time  to  time  sent 
into  Spain,  whose  errors  and  misconduct  caused  the  reverses 
that  Hasdrubal  met  with.     This  is  expressly  attested  by  the 


98  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [207  B.C. 

Greek  historian  Polybius,  who  was  the  intimate  friend  of  the 
younger  Africanus  and  drew  his  information  respecting 
the  second  Punic  war  from  the  best  possible  authorities. 
Livy  gives  a  long  narrative  of  campaigns  between  the  Roman 
commanders  in  Spain  and  Hasdrubal,  which  is  so  palpably 
deformed  by  fictions  and  exaggerations  as  to  be  hardly 
deserving  of  attention. 

It  is  clear  that  in  the  year  208  B.C.,  at  least,  Hasdrubal  out- 
maneuvered  Publius  Scipio,  who  held  the  command  of  the 
Roman  forces  in  Spain,  and  whose  object  was  to  prevent 
him  from  passing  the  Pyrenees  and  marching  upon  Italy. 
Scipio  expected  that  Hasdrubal  would  attempt  the  nearest 
route,  along  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean ;  and  he  there- 
fore carefully  fortified  and  guarded  the  passes  of  the  eastern 
Pyrenees.  But  Hasdrubal  passed  these  mountains  near  their 
western  extremity ;  and  then,  with  a  considerable  force  of 
Spanish  infantry,  with  a  small  number  of  African  troops, 
with  some  elephants  and  much  treasure,  he  marched,  not 
directly  towards  the  coast  of  the  Mediterranean,  but  in  a  north- 
eastern line  towards  the  center  of  Gaul.  He  halted  for  the 
winter  in  the  territory  of  the  Arverni,  the  modern  Auvergne ; 
and  conciliated  or  purchased  the  good-will  of  the  Gauls  in 
that  region  so  far  that  he  not  only  found  friendly  winter 
quarters  among  them,  but  great  numbers  of  them  enlisted 
under  him,  and  on  the  approach  of  spring  marched  with  him 
to  invade  Italy. 

By  thus  entering  Gaul  at  the  southwest,  and  avoiding  its 
southern  maritime  districts,  Hasdrubal  kept  the  Romans  in 
complete  ignorance  of  his  precise  operations  and  movements 
in  that  country.  All  that  they  knew  was  that  Hasdrubal  had 
baffled  Scipio's  attempts  to  keep  him  in  Spain ;  that  he  had 
crossed  the  Pyrenees  with  soldiers,  elephants,  and  money,  and 
that  he  was  raising  fresh  forces  among  the  Gauls.  The  spring 
was  sure  to  bring  him  into  Italy  ;  and  then  would  come  the  real 
tempest  of  the  war,  when  from  the  north  and  from  the  south 
the  two  Carthaginian  armies,  each  under  a  son  of  the  Thunder- 
bolt,2 were  to  gather  together  around  the  seven  hills  of  Rome. 

In  this  emergency  the  Romans  looked  among  themselves 
earnestly  and  anxiously  for  leaders  fit  to  meet  the  perils  of  the 
coming  campaign. 


207  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   THE   METAURUS  99 

The  senate  recommended  the  people  to  elect  as  one  of  their 
consuls  Caius  Claudius  Nero,  a  patrician  of  one  of  the  fami- 
lies of  the  great  Claudian  house.  Nero  had  served  during 
the  preceding  years  of  the  war,  both  against  Hannibal  in 
Italy  and  against  Hasdrubal  in  Spain ;  but  it  is  remarkable 
that  the  histories  which  we  possess  record  no  successes  as 
having  been  achieved  by  him  either  before  or  after  his  great 
campaign  of  the  Metaurus.  It  proves  much  for  the  sagacity 
of  the  leading  men  of  the  senate  that  they  recognized  in 
Nero  the  energy  and  spirit  which  were  required  at  this  crisis, 
and  it  is  equally  creditable  to  the  patriotism  of  the  people 
that  they  followed  the  advice  of  the  senate  by  electing  a 
general  who  had  no  showy  exploits  to  recommend  him  to 
their  choice. 

It  was  a  matter  of  greater  difficulty  to  find  a  second  consul. 
The  laws  required  that  one  consul  should  be  a  plebeian ;  and 
the  plebeian  nobility  had  been  fearfully  thinned  by  the  events 
of  the  war.  While  the  senators  anxiously  deliberated  among 
themselves  what  fit  colleague  for  Nero  could  be  nominated 
at  the  coming  comitia,  and  sorrowfully  recalled  the  names  of 
Marcellus,  Gracchus,  and  other  plebeian  generals  who  were 
no  more,  one  taciturn  and  moody  old  man  sat  in  sullen  apathy 
among  the  conscript  fathers.  This  was  Marcus  Livius,  who 
had  been  consul  in  the  year  before  the  beginning  of  this  war, 
and  had  then  gained  a  victory  over  the  Illyrians.  After  his 
consulship  he  had  been  impeached  before  the  people  on  a 
charge  of  peculation  and  unfair  division  of  the  spoils  among 
his  soldiers.  The  verdict  was  unjustly  given  against  him ; 
and  the  sense  of  this  wrong,  and  of  the  indignity  thus  put 
upon  him,  had  rankled  unceasingly  in  the  bosom  of  Livius, 
so  that  for  eight  years  after  his  trial  he  had  lived  in  seclusion 
at  his  country  seat,  taking  no  part  in  any  affairs  of  state. 
Latterly  the  censors  had  compelled  him  to  come  to  Rome 
and  resume  his  place  in  the  senate,  where  he  used  to  sit 
gloomily  apart,  giving  only  a  silent  vote.  At  last  an  unjust 
accusation  against  one  of  his  near  kinsmen  made  him  break 
silence ;  and  he  harangued  the  house  in  words  of  weight  and 
sense,  which  drew  attention  to  him,  and  taught  the  senators 
that  a  strong  spirit  dwelt  beneath  that  unimposing  exterior. 
Now,  while  they  were  debating  on  what  noble  of  a  plebeian 


IOO  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [207  B.C. 

house  was  fit  to  assume  the  perilous  honors  of  the  consulate, 
some  of  the  elder  of  them  looked  on  Marcus  Livius,  and  re- 
membered that  in  the  very  last  triumph  which  had  been 
celebrated  in  the  streets  of  Rome  this  grim  old  man  had  sat 
in  the  car  of  victory  ;  and  that  he  had  offered  the  last  grand 
thanksgiving  sacrifice  for  the  success  of  the  Roman  arms 
that  had  bled  before  Capitoline  Jove.  There  had  been  no 
triumphs  since  Hannibal  came  into  Italy.3  The  Illyrian 
campaign  of  Livius  was  the  last  that  had  been  so  honored ; 
perhaps  it  might  be  destined  for  him  now  to  renew  the  long- 
interrupted  series.  The  senators  resolved  that  Livius  should 
be  put  in  nomination  as  consul  with  Nero ;  the  people  were 
willing  to  elect  him ;  the  only  opposition  came  from  himself. 
He  taunted  them  with  their  inconsistency  in  honoring  a  man 
they  had  convicted  of  a  base  crime.  "  If  I  am  innocent," 
said  he,  "  why  did  you  place  such  a  stain  on  me  ?  If  I  am 
guilty,  why  am  I  more  fit  for  a  second  consulship  than  I  was 
for  my  first  one  ?  "  The  other  senators  remonstrated  with 
him,  urging  the  example  of  the  great  Camillus,  who,  after  an 
unjust  condemnation  on  a  similar  charge,  both  served  and 
saved  his  country.  At  last  Livius  ceased  to  object ;  and 
Caius  Claudius  Nero  and  Marcus  Livius  were  chosen  consuls 
of  Rome. 

A  quarrel  had  long  existed  between  the  two  consuls,  and 
the  senators  strove  to  effect  a  reconciliation  between  them 
before  the  campaign.  Here  again  Livius  for  a  long  time 
obstinately  resisted  the  wish  of  his  fellow  senators.  He  said 
it  was  best  for  the  state  that  he  and  Nero  should  continue  to 
hate  one  another.  Each  would  do  his  duty  better  when  he 
knew  that  he  was  watched  by  an  enemy  in  the  person  of  his 
own  colleague.  At  last  the  entreaties  of  the  senators  pre- 
vailed, and  Livius  consented  to  forego  the  feud,  and  to 
cooperate  with  Nero  in  preparing  for  the  coming  struggle. 

As  soon  as  the  winter  snows  were  thawed,  Hasdrubal  com- 
menced his  march  from  Auvergne  to  the  Alps.  He  experi- 
enced none  of  the  difficulties  which  his  brother  had  met  with 
from  the  mountain  tribes.  Hannibal's  army  had  been  the 
first  body  of  regular  troops  that  had  ever  traversed  the 
regions ;  and,  as  wild  animals  assail  a  traveler,  the  natives 
rose  against  it  instinctively,  in  imagined  defense  of  their  own 


207  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   THE    METAURUS  IOI 

habitations,  which  they  supposed  to  be  the  objects  of  Cartha- 
ginian ambition.  But  the  fame  of  the  war  with  which  Italy 
had  now  been  convulsed  for  eleven  years  had  penetrated  into 
the  Alpine  passes ;  and  the  mountaineers  understood  that  a 
mighty  city,  southward  of  the  Alps,  was  to  be  attacked  by  the 
troops  whom  they  saw  marching  among  them.  They  not  only 
opposed  no  resistance  to  the  passage  of  Hasdrubal,  but  many 
of  them,  out  of  the  love  of  enterprise  and  plunder,  or  allured 
by  the  high  pay  that  he  offered,  took  service  with  him ;  and 
thus  he  advanced  upon  Italy  with  an  army  that  gathered 
strength  at  every  league.  It  is  said,  also,  that  some  of  the 
most  important  engineering  works  which  Hannibal  had  con- 
structed were  found  by  Hasdrubal  still  in  existence,  and  ma- 
terially favored  the  speed  of  his  advance.  He  thus  emerged 
into  Italy  from  the  Alpine  valleys  much  sooner  than  had  been 
anticipated.  Many  warriors  of  the  Ligurian  tribes  joined 
him ;  and,  crossing  the  river  Po,  he  marched  down  its  south- 
ern bank  to  the  city  of  Placentia,  which  he  wished  to  secure 
as  a  base  for  future  operations.  Placentia  resisted  him  as 
bravely  as  it  had  resisted  Hannibal  eleven  years  before ;  and 
for  some  time  Hasdrubal  was  occupied  with  a  fruitless  siege 
before  its  walls. 

Six  armies  were  levied  for  the  defense  of  Italy  when  the 
long-dreaded  approach  of  Hasdrubal  was  announced.  Sev- 
enty thousand  Romans  served  in  the  fifteen  legions  of  which, 
with  an  equal  number  of  Italian  allies,  those  armies  and  the 
garrisons  were  composed.  Upwards  of  thirty  thousand  more 
Romans  were  serving  in  Sicily,  Sardinia,  and  Spain.  The 
whole  number  of  Roman  citizens  of  an  age  fit  for  military 
duty  scarcely  exceeded  a  hundred  and  thirty  thousand.  The 
census  taken  before  the  war  had  shown  a  total  of  two  hun- 
dred and  seventy  thousand,  which  had  been  diminished  by 
more  than  half  during  twelve  years.  These  numbers  are 
fearfully  emphatic  of  the  extremity  to  which  Rome  was  re- 
duced, and  of  her  gigantic  efforts  in  that  great  agony  of  her 
fate.  Not  merely  men,  but  money  and  military  stores,  were 
drained  to  the  utmost ;  and  if  the  armies  of  that  year  should 
be  swept  off  by  a  repetition  of  the  slaughters  of  Thrasymene 
and  Cannae,  all  felt  that  Rome  would  cease  to  exist.  Even  if 
the  campaign  were  to  be  marked  by  no  decisive  success  on 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SANTA  BARBARA  COLLEGE  LIBRARY 


102  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [207  B.C. 

either  side,  her  ruin  seemed  certain.  In  South  Italy,  Hanni- 
bal had  either  detached  Rome's  allies  from  her,  or  had  impov- 
erished them  by  the  ravages  of  his  army.  If  Hasdrubal  could 
have  done  the  same  in  Upper  Italy,  if  Etruria,  Umbria,  and 
Northern  Latium  had  either  revolted  or  been  laid  waste, 
Rome  must  have  sunk  beneath  sheer  starvation ;  for  the 
hostile  or  desolated  territory  would  have  yielded  no  supplies 
of  corn  for  her  population ;  and  money  to  purchase  it  from 
abroad  there  was  none.  Instant  victory  was  a  matter  of  life 
and  death.  Three  of  her  six  armies  were  ordered  to  the 
north,  but  the  first  of  these  was  required  to  overawe  the  dis- 
affected Etruscans.  The  second  army  of  the  north  was 
pushed  forward,  under  Porcius,  the  pretor,  to  meet  and  keep 
in  check  the  advanced  troops  of  Hasdrubal ;  while  the  third, 
the  grand  army  of  the  north,  which  was  to  be  under  the  im- 
mediate command  of  the  consul  Livius,  who  had  the  chief 
command  in  all  North  Italy,  advanced  more  slowly  in  its 
support.  There  were  similarly  three  armies  in  the  south, 
under  the  orders  of  the  other  consul,  Claudius  Nero. 

The  lot  had  decided  that  Livius  was  to  be  opposed  to  Has- 
drubal, and  that  Nero  should  face  Hannibal.  And  "when 
all  was  ordered  as  themselves  thought  best,  the  two  consuls 
went  forth  of  the  city,  each  his  several  way.  The  people  of 
Rome  were  now  quite  otherwise  affected  than  they  had  been 
when  L.  ^milius  Paulus  and  C.  Terentius  Varro  were  sent 
against  Hannibal.  They  did  no  longer  take  upon  them  to 
direct  their  generals,  or  bid  them  despatch,  and  win  the  vic- 
tory betimes ;  but  rather  they  stood  in  fear  lest  all  diligence, 
wisdom,  and  valor  should  prove  too  little.  For  since  few 
years  had  passed  wherein  some  one  of  their  generals  had  not 
been  slain,  and  since  it  was  manifest  that  if  either  of  these 
present  consuls  were  defeated  or  put  to  the  worst,  the  two 
Carthaginians  would  forthwith  join  and  make  short  work 
with  the  other,  it  seemed  a  greater  happiness  than  could  be 
expected  that  each  of  them  should  return  home  victor,  and 
come  off  with  honor  from  such  mighty  opposition  as  he  was 
like  to  find.  With  extreme  difficulty  had  Rome  held  up  her 
head  ever  since  the  battle  of  Cannae ;  though  it  were  so  that 
Hannibal  alone,  with  little  help  from  Carthage,  had  continued 
the  war  in  Italy.     But  there  was  now  arrived  another  son  of 


207  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   THE   METAURUS  103 

Amilcar;  and  one  that,  in  his  present  expedition,  had  seemed  a 
man  of  more  sufficiency  than  Hannibal  himself.  For,  whereas 
in  that  long  and  dangerous  march  through  barbarous  nations, 
over  great  rivers  and  mountains  that  were  thought  unpassa- 
ble,  Hannibal  had  lost  a  great  part  of  his  army,  this  Asdru- 
bal,  in  the  same  places,  had  multiplied  his  numbers;  and, 
gathering  the  people  that  he  found  in  the  way,  descended 
from  the  Alps  like  a  rolling  snowball,  far  greater  than  he 
came  over  the  Pyrenees  at  his  first  setting  out  of  Spain. 
These  considerations,  and  the  like,  of  which  fear  presented 
many  unto  them,  caused  the  people  of  Rome  to  wait  upon 
their  consuls  out  of  the  town,  like  a  pensive  train  of  mourn- 
ers ;  thinking  upon  Marcellus  and  Crispinus,  upon  whom,  in 
the  like  sort,  they  had  given  attendance  the  last  year,  but 
saw  neither  of  them  return  alive  from  a  less  dangerous  war. 
Particularly  old  Q.  Fabius  gave  his  accustomed  advice  to 
M.  Livius,  that  he  should  abstain  from  giving  or  taking  battle, 
until  he  well  understood  the  enemies'  condition.  But  the  con- 
sul made  him  a  froward  answer,  and  said  that  he  would  fight 
the  very  first  day,  for  that  he  thought  it  long  till  he  should 
either  recover  his  honor  by  victory,  or,  by  seeing  the  over- 
throw of  his  own  unjust  citizens,  satisfy  himself  with  the  joy 
of  a  great,  though  not  an  honest,  revenge.  But  his  meaning 
was  better  than  his  words."      [Raleigh.] 

Hannibal  at  this  period  occupied  with  his  veteran  but  much- 
reduced  forces  the  extreme  south  of  Italy.  It  had  not  been 
expected  either  by  friend  or  foe  that  Hasdrubal  would  effect 
his  passage  of  the  Alps  so  early  in  the  year  as  actually 
occurred.  And  even  when  Hannibal  learned  that  his  brother 
was  in  Italy,  and  had  advanced  as  far  as  Placentia,  he  was 
obliged  to  pause  for  further  intelligence,  before  he  himself 
commenced  active  operations,  as  he  could  not  tell  whether  his 
brother  might  not  be  invited  into  Etruria,  to  aid  the  party 
there  that  was  disaffected  to  Rome,  or  whether  he  would 
march  down  by  the  Adriatic  Sea.  Hannibal  led  his  troops 
out  of  their  winter  quarters  in  Bruttium,  and  marched  north- 
ward as  far  as  Canusium.  Nero  had  his  headquarters  near 
Venusia,  with  an  army  which  he  had  increased  to  forty  thou- 
sand foot  and  two  thousand  five  hundred  horse,  by  incorpo- 
rating under  his  own  command  some  of  the  legions  which 


104  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [207  B.C. 

had  been  intended  to  act  under  other  generals  in  the  south. 
There  was  another   Roman   army  twenty  thousand   strong, 
south  of  Hannibal,  at  Tarentum.     The  strength  of  that  city 
secured  this  Roman  force  from  any  attack  by  Hannibal,  and 
it  was  a  serious  matter  to  march  northward  and  leave  it  in  his 
rear,  free  to   act  against  all   his  depots    and    allies    in  the 
friendly  part  of  Italy,  which  for  the  last  two  or  three  cam- 
paigns had  served  him  for  a  base  of  his  operations.     More- 
over, Nero's  army  was  so  strong  that   Hannibal  could  not 
concentrate  troops  enough  to  assume  the  offensive  against  it 
without  weakening  his  garrisons,  and  relinquishing,  at  least 
for  a  time,  his  grasp  upon  the  southern  provinces.     To  do 
this  before  he  was  certainly  informed  of  his  brother's  opera- 
tions would  have  been  a  useless  sacrifice;    as   Nero   could 
retreat  before  him  upon  the  other  Roman  armies  near  the 
capital,    and    Hannibal    knew    by   experience   that    a   mere 
advance  of  his  army  upon  the  walls  of  Rome  would  have  no 
effect  on  the  fortunes  of  the  war.     In  the  hope,  probably,  of 
inducing  Nero  to  follow  him,  and  of  gaining  an  opportunity 
of  outmaneuvering  the  Roman  consul  and  attacking  him  on 
his  march,  Hannibal  moved  into  Lucania,  and  then  back  into 
Apulia ;  he  again  marched  down  into  Bruttium,  and  strength- 
ened his  army  by  a  levy  of  recruits  in  that  district.     Nero 
followed  him,  but  gave  him  no  chance  of  assailing  him  at  a 
disadvantage.     Some  partial  encounters  seem  to  have  taken 
place ;  but  the  consul  could  not  prevent  Hannibal's  junction 
with  his  Bruttian  levies,  nor  could  Hannibal  gain  an  oppor- 
tunity of   surprising   and   crushing   the   consul.4     Hannibal 
returned  to  his  former  headquarters  at  Canusium,  and  halted 
there  in  expectation  of  further  tidings  of  his  brother's  move- 
ments.    Nero  also  resumed  his  former  position  in  observation 
of  the  Carthaginian  army. 

Meanwhile,  Hasdrubal  had  raised  the  siege  of  Placentia, 
and  was  advancing  towards  Ariminum  on  the  Adriatic,  and 
driving  before  him  the  Roman  army  under  Porcius.  Nor 
when  the  consul  Livius  had  come  up,  and  united  the  second 
and  third  armies  of  the  north,  could  he  make  head  against 
the  invaders.  The  Romans  still  fell  back  before  Hasdrubal, 
beyond  Ariminum,  beyond  the  Metaurus,  and  as  far  as  the 
little  town  of  Sena,  to  the  southeast  of  that  river.     Hasdrubal 


207  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF  THE   METAURUS  105 

was  not  unmindful  of  the  necessity  of  acting  in  concert  with  his 
brother.     He  sent  messengers  to  Hannibal  to  announce  his 
own  line  of  march,  and  to  propose  that  they  should  unite  their 
armies  in  South  Umbria,  and  then  wheel  round  against  Rome. 
Those  messengers  traversed  the  greater  part  of  Italy  in  safety  ; 
but,  when  close  to  the  object  of  their  mission,  were  captured 
by  a  Roman  detachment ;  and  Hasdrubal's  letter,  detailing  his 
whole  plan  of  the  campaign,  was  laid,  not  in  his  brother's 
hands,  but  in  those  of  the  commander  of  the  Roman  armies 
of  the  south.     Nero  saw  at  once  the  full  importance  of  the 
crisis.     The  two  sons  of  Hamilcar  were  now  within  two  hun- 
dred miles  of  each  other,  and  if  Rome  were  to  be  saved,  the 
brothers  must  never  meet  alive.     Nero  instantly  ordered  seven 
thousand  picked  men,  a  thousand  being  cavalry,  to  hold  them- 
selves in  readiness  for  a  secret  expedition  against  one  of  Han- 
nibal's garrisons ;  and  as  soon  as  night  had  set  in,  he  hurried 
forward  on  his  bold  enterprise ;  but  he  quickly  left  the  south- 
ern  road   towards    Lucania,    and,  wheeling   round,    pressed 
northward  with  the  utmost  rapidity  towards  Picenum.     He 
had  during  the  preceding  afternoon  sent  messengers  to  Rome, 
who  were  to  lay  Hasdrubal's  letters  before  the  senate.     There 
was  a  law  forbidding  a  consul  to  make  war  or  to  march  his 
army  beyond  the  limits  of  the  province  assigned  to  him ;  but 
in  such  an  emergency  Nero  did  not  wait  for  the  permission 
of  the  senate  to  execute  his  project,  but  informed  them  that 
he  was  already  on  his  march  to  join  Livius  against  Hasdrubal. 
He  advised  them  to  send  the  two  legions  which  formed  the 
home  garrison  on  to  Narnia,  so  as  to  defend  that  pass  of  the 
Flaminian  road  against  Hasdrubal,  in  case  he  should  march 
upon   Rome  before  the  consular  armies  could  attack    him. 
They  were  to  supply  the  place  of  these  two  legions  at  Rome 
by  a  levy  en  masse  in  the  city,  and  by  ordering  up  the  reserve 
legion  from  Capua.     These  were  his  communications  to  the 
senate.     He  also  sent  horsemen  forward  along  his  line  of 
march,  with  orders  to  the  local  authorities  to  bring  stores  of 
provisions  and  refreshments  of  every  kind  to  the  roadside, 
and  to  have  relays  of  carriages  ready  for  the  conveyance  of 
the  wearied  soldiers.     Such  were  the  precautions  which  he 
took  for  accelerating  his  march  ;  and  when  he  had  advanced 
some  little  distance  from  his  camp,  he  briefly  informed  his 


106  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [207  b.c. 

soldiers  of  the  real  object  of  their  expedition.  He  told  them 
that  there  never  was  a  design  more  seemingly  audacious,  and 
more  really  safe.  He  said  he  was  leading  them  to  a  certain 
victory,  for  his  colleague  had  an  army  large  enough  to  balance 
the  enemy  already,  so  that  their  swords  would  decisively  turn 
the  scale.  The  very  rumor  that  a  fresh  consul  and  a  fresh 
army  had  come  up,  when  heard  on  the  battle-field  (and  he 
would  take  care  that  they  should  not  be  heard  of  before  they 
were  seen  and  felt),  would  settle  the  campaign.  They  would 
have  all  the  credit  of  the  victory,  and  of  having  dealt  the  final 
decisive  blow.  He  appealed  to  the  enthusiastic  reception 
which  they  had  already  met  with  on  their  line  of  march  as  a 
proof  and  an  omen  of  their  good  fortune.  And,  indeed,  their 
whole  path  was  amid  the  vows  and  prayers  and  praises  of 
their  countrymen.  The  entire  population  of  the  districts 
through  which  they  passed  flocked  to  the  roadside  to  see  and 
bless  the  deliverers  of  their  country.  Food,  drink,  and  refresh- 
ments of  every  kind  were  eagerly  pressed  on  their  acceptance. 
Each  peasant  thought  a  favor  was  conferred  on  him  if  one 
of  Nero's  chosen  band  would  accept  aught  at  his  hands.  The 
soldiers  caught  the  full  spirit  of  their  leader.  Night  and  day 
they  marched  forward,  taking  their  hurried  meals  in  the  ranks, 
and  resting  by  relays  in  the  wagons  which  the  zeal  of  the 
country  people  provided,  and  which  followed  in  the  rear  of 
the  column. 

Meanwhile,  at  Rome,  the  news  of  Nero's  expedition  had 
caused  the  greatest  excitement  and  alarm.  All  men  felt  the 
full  audacity  of  the  enterprise,  but  hesitated  what  epithet  to 
apply  to  it.  It  was  evident  that  Nero's  conduct  would  be 
judged  of  by  the  event  —  that  most  unfair  criterion,  as  Livy 
truly  terms  it.  People  reasoned  on  the  perilous  state  in  which 
Nero  had  left  the  rest  of  his  army,  without  a  general,  and 
deprived  of  the  core  of  its  strength,  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
terrible  Hannibal.  They  speculated  on  how  long  it  would 
take  Hannibal  to  pursue  and  overtake  Nero  himself  and  his 
expeditionary  force.  They  talked  over  the  former  disasters 
of  the  war,  and  the  fall  of  both  the  consuls  of  the  last  year. 
All  these  calamities  had  come  on  them  while  they  had  only 
one  Carthaginian  general  and  army  to  deal  with  in  Italy. 
Now  they  had  two  Punic  wars  at  one  time.     They  had  two 


207  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   THE   METAURUS  IO/ 

Carthaginian  armies  ;  they  had  almost  two  Hannibals  in  Italy. 
Hasdrubal  was  sprung  from  the  same  father ;  trained  up  in 
the  same  hostility  to  Rome  ;  equally  practised  in  battle  against 
its  legions ;  and,  if  the  comparative  speed  and  success  with 
which  he  had  crossed  the  Alps  was  a  fair  test,  he  was  even 
a  better  general  than  his  brother.  With  fear  for  their  inter- 
preter of  every  rumor,  they  exaggerated  the  strength  of  their 
enemy's  forces  in  every  quarter,  and  criticized  and  distrusted 
their  own. 

Fortunately  for  Rome,  while  she  was  thus  a  prey  to  terror 
and  anxiety,  her  consul's  nerves  were  strong,  and  he  reso- 
lutely urged  on  his  march  towards  Sena,  where  his  colleague, 
Livius,  and  the  pretor  Porcius  were  encamped ;  Hasdrubal's 
army  being  in  position  about  half  a  mile  to  the  north.  Nero 
had  sent  couriers  forward  to  apprise  his  colleague  of  his  proj- 
ect and  of  his  approach ;  and  by  the  advice  of  Livius,  Nero 
so  timed  his  final  march  as  to  reach  the  camp  at  Sena  by 
night.  According  to  a  previous  arrangement,  Nero's  men 
were  received  silently  into  the  tents  of  their  comrades,  each 
according  to  his  rank.  By  these  means  there  was  no  enlarge- 
ment of  the  camp  that  could  betray  to  Hasdrubal  the  accession 
of  force  which  the  Romans  had  received.  This  was  consid- 
erable, as  Nero's  numbers  had  been  increased  on  the  march 
by  the  volunteers,  who  offered  themselves  in  crowds,  and  from 
whom  he  selected  the  most  promising  men,  and  especially 
the  veterans  of  former  campaigns.  A  council  of  war  was 
held  on  the  morning  after  his  arrival,  in  which  some  advised 
that  time  should  be  given  for  Nero's  men  to  refresh  them- 
selves, after  the  fatigue  of  such  a  march.  But  Nero  vehe- 
mently opposed  all  delay.  "The  officer,"  said  he,  "who  is 
for  giving  time  for  my  men  here  to  rest  themselves  is  for 
giving  time  to  Hannibal  to  attack  my  men,  whom  I  have  left 
in  the  camp  in  Apulia.  He  is  for  giving  time  to  Hannibal 
and  Hasdrubal  to  discover  my  march,  and  to  maneuver  for 
a  junction  with  each  other  in  Cisalpine  Gaul  at  their  leisure. 
We  must  fight  instantly,  while  both  the  foe  here  and  the  foe 
in  the  south  are  ignorant  of  our  movements.  We  must  destroy 
this  Hasdrubal,  and  I  must  be  back  in  Apulia  before  Hanni- 
bal awakes  from  his  torpor."  Nero's  advice  prevailed.  It 
was  resolved  to  fight  directly ;  and  before  the  consuls  and 


108  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [207  B.C. 

pretor  left  the  tent  of  Livius,  the  red  ensign,  which  was  the 
signal  to  prepare  for  immediate  action,  was  hoisted,  and  the 
Romans  forthwith  drew  up  in  battle  array  outside  the  camp. 
Hasdrubal  had  been  anxious  to  bring  Livius  and  Porcius 
to  battle,  though  he  had  not  judged  it  expedient  to  attack 
them  in  their  lines.  And  now,  on  hearing  that  the  Romans 
offered  battle,  he  also  drew  up  his  men,  and  advanced  towards 
them.  No  spy  or  deserter  had  informed  him  of  Nero's  arrival ; 
nor  had  he  received  any  direct  information  that  he  had  more 
than  his  old  enemies  to  deal  with.  But  as  he  rode  forward 
to  reconnoiter  the  Roman  line,  he  thought  that  their  numbers 
seemed  to  have  increased,  and  that  the  armor  of  some  of  them 
was  unusually  dull  and  stained.  He  noticed  also  that  the 
horses  of  some  of  the  cavalry  appeared  to  be  rough  and  out 
of  condition,  as  if  they  had  just  come  from  a  succession  of 
forced  marches.  So  also,  though,  owing  to  the  precaution 
of  Livius,  the  Roman  camp  showed  no  change  of  size,  it  had 
not  escaped  the  quick  ear  of  the  Carthaginian  general  that 
the  trumpet  which  gave  the  signal  to  the  Roman  legions 
sounded  that  morning  once  oftener  than  usual,  as  if  directing 
the  troops  of  some  additional  superior  officer.  Hasdrubal, 
from  his  Spanish  campaigns,  was  well  acquainted  with  all 
the  sounds  and  signals  of  Roman  war ;  and,  from  all  that  he 
heard  and  saw,  he  felt  convinced  that  both  the  Roman  consuls 
were  before  him.  In  doubt  and  difficulty  as  to  what  might 
have  taken  place  between  the  armies  of  the  south,  and  prob- 
ably hoping  that  Hannibal  also  was  approaching,  Hasdrubal 
determined  to  avoid  an  encounter  with  the  combined  Roman 
forces,  and  to  endeavor  to  retreat  upon  Insubrian  Gaul,  where 
he  would  be  in  a  friendly  country,  and  could  endeavor  to 
reopen  his  communications  with  his  brother.  He  therefore 
led  his  troops  back  into  their  camp ;  and,  as  the  Romans  did 
not  venture  on  an  assault  upon  his  entrenchments,  and  Has- 
drubal did  not  choose  to  commence  his  retreat  in  their  sight, 
the  day  passed  away  in  inaction.  At  the  first  watch  of  the 
night,  Hasdrubal  led  his  men  silently  out  of  their  camp,  and 
moved  northwards  towards  the  Metaurus,  in  the  hope  of 
placing  that  river  between  himself  and  the  Romans  before 
his  retreat  was  discovered.  His  guides  betrayed  him ;  and 
having  purposely  led  him  away  from  the  part  of  the  river 


207  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF  THE   METAURUS  109 

that  was  fordable,  they  made  their  escape  in  the  dark,  and 
left  Hasdrubal  and  his  army  wandering  in  confusion  along 
the  steep  bank,  and  seeking  in  vain  for  a  spot  where  the 
stream  could  be  safely  crossed.  At  last  they  halted ;  and 
when  day  dawned  on  them,  Hasdrubal  found  that  great  num- 
bers of  his  men,  in  their  fatigue  and  impatience,  had  lost  all 
discipline  and  subordination,  and  that  many  of  his  Gallic  aux- 
iliaries had  got  drunk,  and  were  lying  helpless  in  their  quarters. 
The  Roman  cavalry  was  soon  seen  coming  up  in  pursuit,  fol- 
lowed at  no  great  distance  by  the  legions,  which  marched 
in  readiness  for  an  instant  engagement.  It  was  hopeless  for 
Hasdrubal  to  think  of  continuing  his  retreat  before  them. 
The  prospect  of  immediate  battle  might  recall  the  disordered 
part  of  his  troops  to  a  sense  of  duty,  and  revive  the  instinct 
of  discipline.  He  therefore  ordered  his  men  to  prepare  for 
action  instantly,  and  made  the  best  arrangement  of  them  that 
the  nature  of  the  ground  would  permit. 

Heeren  has  well  described  the  general  appearance  of  a 
Carthaginian  army.  He  says  :  "  It  was  an  assemblage  of  the 
most  opposite  races  of  the  human  species,  from  the  farthest 
parts  of  the  globe.  Hordes  of  half-naked  Gaub  were  ranged 
next  to  companies  of  white-clothed  Iberians,  and  savage  Ligu- 
rians  next  to  the  far-traveled  Nasamones  and  Lotophagi. 
Carthaginians  and  Phcenici-Af ricans  formed  the  center ;  while 
innumerable  troops  of  Numidian  horsemen,  taken  from  all  the 
tribes  of  the  desert,  swarmed  about  on  unsaddled  horses, 
and  formed  the  wings.  The  van  was  composed  of  Balearic 
slingers  ;  and  a  line  of  colossal  elephants,  with  their  Ethiopian 
guides,  formed,  as  it  were,  a  chain  of  moving  fortresses  before 
the  whole  army."  Such  were  the  usual  materials  and  arrange- 
ments of  the  hosts  that  fought  for  Carthage  ;  but  the  troops 
under  Hasdrubal  were  not  in  all  respects  thus  constituted  or 
thus  stationed.  He  seems  to  have  been  especially  deficient  in 
cavalry,  and  he  had  few  African  troops,  though  some  Cartha- 
ginians of  high  rank  were  with  him.  His  veteran  Spanish 
infantry,  armed  with  helmets  and  shields,  and  short  cut-and- 
thrust  swords,  were  the  best  part  of  his  army.  These,  and 
his  few  Africans,  he  drew  up  on  his  right  wing,  under  his 
own  personal  command.  In  the  center  he  placed  his  Ligurian 
infantry,  and  on  the  left  wing  he  placed  or  retained  the  Gauls, 


IIO  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [207  B.C. 

who  were  armed  with  long  javelins  and  with  huge  broadswords 
and  targets.  The  rugged  nature  of  the  ground  in  front  and 
on  the  flank  of  this  part  of  his  line  made  him  hope  that  the 
Roman  right  wing  would  be  unable  to  come  to  close  quarters 
with  these  unserviceable  barbarians,  before  he  could  make 
some  impression  with  his  Spanish  veterans  on  the  Roman 
left.  This  was  the  only  chance  that  he  had  of  victory  or 
safety,  and  he  seems  to  have  done  everything  that  good  gen- 
eralship could  do  to  secure  it.  He  placed  his  elephants  in 
advance  of  his  center  and  right  wing.  He  had  caused  the 
driver  of  each  of  them  to  be  provided  with  a  sharp  iron 
spike  and  a  mallet ;  and  had  given  orders  that  every  beast 
that  became  unmanageable,  and  ran  back  upon  his  own  ranks, 
should  be  instantly  killed,  by  driving  the  spike  into  the  verte- 
bra at  the  junction  of  the  head  and  the  spine.  Hasdrubal's 
elephants  were  ten  in  number.  We  have  no  trustworthy 
information  as  to  the  amount  of  his  infantry,  but  it  is  quite 
clear  that  he  was  greatly  outnumbered  by  the  combined  Roman 
forces. 

The  tactic  of  the  Roman  legions  had  not  yet  acquired  the 
perfection  which  it  received  from  the  military  genius  of 
Marius,5  and  which  we  read  of  in  the  first  chapter  of  Gibbon. 
We  possess  in  that  great  work  an  account  of  the  Roman 
legions  at  the  end  of  the  commonwealth,  and  during  the  early 
ages  of  the  empire,  which  those  alone  can  adequately  admire 
who  have  attempted  a  similar  description.  We  have  also,  in 
the  sixth  and  seventeenth  books  of  Polybius  an  elaborate  dis- 
cussion on  the  military  system  of  the  Romans  in  his  time, 
which  was  not  far  distant  from  the  time  of  the  battle  of  the 
Metaurus.  But  the  subject  is  beset  with  difficulties ;  and  in- 
stead of  entering  into  minute  but  inconclusive  details,  I  would 
refer  to  Gibbon's  first  chapter,  as  serving  for  a  general  de- 
scription of  the  Roman  army  in  its  period  of  perfection,  and 
remark  that  the  training  and  armor  which  the  whole  legion 
received  in  the  time  of  Augustus  were,  two  centuries  earlier, 
only  partially  introduced.  Two  divisions  of  troops,  called 
Hastati  and  Principes,  formed  the  bulk  of  each  Roman  legion 
in  the  second  Punic  war.  Each  of  these  divisions  was  twelve 
hundred  strong.  The  Hastatus  and  the  Princeps  legionary 
bore    a   breastplate   or   coat  of  mail,  brazen  greaves,  and  a 


207  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   THE   METAURUS  1 1 1 

brazen  helmet,  with  a  lofty,  upright  crest  of  scarlet  or  black 
feathers.  He  had  a  large  oblong  shield;  and,  as  weapons  of 
offense,  two  javelins,  one  of  which  was  light  and  slender,  but 
the  other  was  a  strong  and  massive  weapon,  with  a  shaft  about 
four  feet  long,  and  an  iron  head  of  equal  length.  The  sword 
was  carried  on  the  right  thigh,  and  was  a  short  cut-and-thrust 
weapon,  like  that  which  was  used  by  the  Spaniards.  Thus 
armed,  the  Hastati  formed  the  front  division  of  the  legion, 
and  the  Principes  the  second.  Each  division  was  drawn  up 
about  ten  deep  ;  a  space  of  three  feet  being  allowed  between 
the  files  as  well  as  the  ranks,  so  as  to  give  each  legionary 
ample  room  for  the  use  of  his  javelins  and  of  his  sword  and 
shield.  The  men  in  the  second  rank  did  not  stand  immedi- 
ately behind  those  in  the  first  rank,  but  the  files  were  alternate, 
like  the  position  of  the  men  on  a  draught-board.  This  was 
termed  the  quincunx  order.  Niebuhr  considers  that  this 
arrangement  enabled  the  legion  to  keep  up  a  shower  of 
javelins  on  the  enemy  for  some  considerable  time.  He  says  : 
"  When  the  first  line  had  hurled  its  pila,  it  probably  stepped 
back  between  those  who  stood  behind  it,  who  with  two  steps 
forward  restored  the  front  nearly  to  its  first  position ;  a  move- 
ment which,  on  account  of  the  arrangement  of  the  quincunx, 
could  be  executed  without  losing  a  moment.  Thus  one  line 
succeeded  the  other  in  the  front  till  it  was  time  to  draw  the 
swords ;  nay,  when  it  was  found  expedient,  the  lines  which 
had  already  been  in  the  front  might  repeat  this  change,  since 
the  stores  of  pila  were  surely  not  confined  to  the  two  which 
each  soldier  took  with  him  into  battle. 

"  The  same  change  must  have  taken  place  in  fighting  with 
the  sword  ;  which,  when  the  same  tactic  was  adopted  on  both 
sides,  was  anything  but  a  confused  melee ;  on  the  contrary,  it 
was  a  series  of  single  combats."  He  adds  that  a  military 
man  of  experience  had  been  consulted  by  him  on  the  subject, 
and  had  given  it  as  his  opinion  "  that  the  change  of  the  lines 
as  described  above  was  by  no  means  impracticable  ;  and  in 
the  absence  of  the  deafening  noise  of  gunpowder,  it  cannot 
have  had  even  any  difficulty  with  trained  troops." 

The  third  division  of  the  legion  was  six  hundred  strong,  and 
acted  as  a  reserve.  It  was  always  composed  of  veteran  sol- 
diers, who  were  called  the    Triarii.     Their   arms   were   the 


112  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [207  B.C. 

same  as  those  of  the  Principes  and  Hastati;  except  that  each 
Triarian  carried  a  spear  instead  of  javelins.  The  rest  of  the 
legion  consisted  of  light-armed  troops,  who  acted  as  skirmish- 
ers. The  cavalry  of  each  legion  was  at  this  period  about 
three  hundred  strong.  The  Italian  allies,  who  were  attached 
to  the  legion,  seem  to  have  been  similarly  armed  and  equipped, 
but  their  numerical  proportion  of  cavalry  was  much  larger. 

Such  was  the  nature  of  the  forces  that  advanced  on  the 
Roman  side  to  the  battle  of  the  Metaurus.  Nero  commanded 
the  right  wing,  Livius  the  left,  and  the  pretor  Porcius  had  the 
command  of  the  center.  "  Both  Romans  and  Carthaginians 
well  understood  how  much  depended  upon  the  fortune  of  this 
day,  and  how  little  hope  of  safety  there  was  for  the  van- 
quished. Only  the  Romans  herein  seemed  to  have  had  the 
better  in  conceit  and  opinion,  that  they  were  to  fight  with  men 
desirous  to  have  fled  from  them.  And  according  to  this  pre- 
sumption came  Livius  the  consul,  with  a  proud  bravery,  to 
give  charge  on  the  Spaniards  and  Africans,  by  whom  he 
was  so  sharply  entertained  that  victory  seemed  very  doubtful. 
The  Africans  and  Spaniards  were  stout  soldiers,  and  well 
acquainted  with  the  manner  of  the  Roman  fight.  The  Ligu- 
rians,  also,  were  a  hardy  nation,  and  not  accustomed  to  give 
ground  ;  which  they  needed  the  less,  or  were  able  now  to 
do,  being  placed  in  the  midst.  Livius,  therefore,  and  Porcius 
found  great  opposition ;  and,  with  great  slaughter  on  both 
sides,  prevailed  little  or  nothing.  Besides  other  difficulties, 
they  were  exceedingly  troubled  by  the  elephants,  that  brake 
their  first  ranks,  and  put  them  in  such  disorder  as  the  Roman 
ensigns  were  driven  to  fall  back ;  all  this  while  Claudius  Nero, 
laboring  in  vain  against  a  steep  hill,  was  unable  to  come  to 
blows  with  the  Gauls  that  stood  opposite  him,  but  out  of 
danger.  This  made  Hasdrubal  the  more  confident,  who,  see- 
ing his  own  left  wing  safe,  did  the  more  boldly  and  fiercely 
make  impression  on  the  other  side  upon  the  left  wing  of  the 
Romans."      [Raleigh.] 

But  at  last  Nero,  who  found  that  Hasdrubal  refused  his  left 
wing,  and  who  could  not  overcome  the  difficulties  of  the  ground 
in  the  quarter  assigned  to  him,  decided  the  battle  by  another 
stroke  of  that  military  genius  which  had  inspired  his  march. 
Wheeling:  a  brigade  of  his  best  men  round  the  rear  of  the  rest 


207B.C.]  BATTLE    OF    THE    METAURUS  1 13 

of  the  Roman  army,  Nero  fiercely  charged  the  flank  of  the 
Spaniards  and  Africans.  The  charge  was  as  successful  as  it 
was  sudden.  Rolled  back  in  disorder  upon  each  other,  and 
overwhelmed  by  numbers,  the  Spaniards  and  Ligurians  died, 
fighting  gallantly  to  the  last.  The  Gauls,  who  had  taken  little 
or  no  part  in  the  strife  of  the  day,  were  then  surrounded,  and 
butchered  almost  without  resistance.  Hasdrubal,  after  having, 
by  the  confession  of  his  enemies,  done  all  that  a  general  could 
do,  when  he  saw  that  the  victory  was  irreparably  lost,  scorn- 
ing to  survive  the  gallant  host  which  he  had  led,  and  to  grat- 
ify, as  a  captive,  Roman  cruelty  and  pride,  spurred  his  horse 
into  the  midst  of  a  Roman  cohort ;  where,  sword  in  hand,  he 
met  the  death  that  was  worthy  of  the  son  of  Hamilcar  and 
the  brother  of  Hannibal. 

Success  the  most  complete  had  crowned  Nero's  enterprise. 
Returning  as  rapidly  as  he  had  advanced,  he  was  again  facing 
the  inactive  enemies  in  the  south  before  they  even  knew  of  his 
march.  But  he  brought  with  him  a  ghastly  trophy  of  what  he 
had  done.  In  the  true  spirit  of  that  savage  brutality  which 
deformed  the  Roman  national  character,  Nero  ordered  Has- 
drubal's  head  to  be  flung  into  his  brother's  camp.  Eleven 
years  had  passed  since  Hannibal  had  last  gazed  on  those 
features.  The  sons  of  Hamilcar  had  then  planned  their  sys- 
tem of  warfare  against  Rome,  which  they  had  so  nearly  brought 
to  successful  accomplishment.  Year  after  year  had  Hannibal 
been  struggling  in  Italy,  in  the  hope  of  one  day  hailing  the 
arrival  of  him  whom  he  had  left  in  Spain,  and  of  seeing  his 
brother's  eye  flash  with  affection  and  pride  at  the  junction  of 
their  irresistible  hosts.  He  now  saw  that  eye  glazed  in  death, 
and,  in  the  agony  of  his  heart,  the  great  Carthaginian  groaned 
aloud  that  he  recognized  his  country's  destiny. 

Rome  was  almost  delirious  with  joy:  so  agonizing  had  been 
the  suspense  with  which  the  battle's  verdict  on  that  great  issue 
of  a  nation's  life  and  death  had  been  awaited ;  so  overpower- 
ing was  the  sudden  reaction  to  the  consciousness  of  security 
and  to  the  full  glow  of  glory  and  success.  From  the  time 
when  it  had  been  known  at  Rome  that  the  armies  were  in 
presence  of  each  other,  the  people  had  never  ceased  to  throng 
the  forum,  the  conscript  fathers  had  been  in  permanent  sit- 
ting at  the  senate-house.     Ever  and  anon  a  fearful  whisper 


114  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [207  B.C. 

crept  among  the  crowd  of  a  second  Cannae  won  by  a  second 
Hannibal.  Then  came  truer  rumors  that  the  day  was  Rome's; 
but  the  people  were  sick  at  heart,  and  heeded  them  not.  The 
shrines  were  thronged  with  trembling  women,  who  seemed  to 
weary  Heaven  with  prayers  to  shield  them  from  the  brutal 
Gaul  and  the  savage  African.  Presently  the  reports  of  good 
fortune  assumed  a  more  definite  form.  It  was  said  that  two 
Narnian  horsemen  had  ridden  from  the  east  into  the  Roman 
camp  of  observation  in  Umbria,  and  had  brought  tidings  of 
the  utter  slaughter  of  the  foe.  Such  news  seemed  too  good 
to  be  true.  Men  tortured  their  neighbors  and  themselves  by 
demonstrating  its  improbability  and  by  ingeniously  criticizing 
its  evidence.  Soon,  however,  a  letter  came  from  Lucius  Man- 
lius  Acidinus,  who  commanded  in  Umbria,  and  who  announced 
the  arrival  of  the  Narnian  horsemen  in  his  camp,  and  the  intel- 
ligence which  they  brought  thither.  The  letter  was  first  laid 
before  the  senate,  and  then  before  the  assembly  of  the  people. 
The  excitement  grew  more  and  more  vehement.  The  letter 
was  read  and  reread  aloud  to  thousands.  It  confirmed  the 
previous  rumor.  But  even  this  was  insufficient  to  allay  the 
feverish  anxiety  that  thrilled  through  every  breast  in  Rome. 
The  letter  might  be  a  forgery :  the  Narnian  horsemen  might 
be  traitors  or  impostors.  "We  must  see  officers  from  the  army 
that  fought,  or  hear  despatches  from  the  consuls  themselves, 
and  then  only  will  we  believe."  Such  was  the  public  senti- 
ment, though  some  of  more  hopeful  nature  already  permitted 
themselves  a  foretaste  of  joy.  At  length  came  news  that  offi- 
cers who  really  had  been  in  the  battle  were  near  at  hand. 
Forthwith  the  whole  city  poured  forth  to  meet  them,  each 
person  coveting  to  be  the  first  to  receive  with  his  own  eyes 
and  ears  convincing  proofs  of  the  reality  of  such  a  deliver- 
ance. One  vast  throng  of  human  beings  filled  the  road  from 
Rome  to  the  Milvian  bridge.  The  three  officers,  Lucius  Vetu- 
rius  Pollio,  Publius  Licinius  Varus,  and  Quintus  Cascilius  Me- 
tellus,  came  riding  on,  making  their  way  slowly  through  the 
living  sea  around  them.  As  they  advanced,  each  told  the 
successive  waves  of  eager  questioners  that  Rome  was  victori- 
ous. "We  have  destroyed  Hasdrubal  and  his  army,  our 
legions  are  safe,  and  our  consuls  are  unhurt."  Each  happy 
listener  who  caught  the  welcome  sounds  from  their  lips  retired 


207B.C]  BATTLE   OF   THE   METAURUS  115 

to  communicate  his  own  joy  to  others,  and  became  himself  the 
center  of  an  anxious  and  inquiring  group.  When  the  officers 
had,  with  much  difficulty,  reached  the  senate-house,  and  the 
crowd  was  with  still  greater  difficulty  put  back  from  entering 
and  mingling  with  the  conscript  fathers,  the  despatches  of 
Livius  and  Nero  were  produced  and  read  aloud.  From  the 
senate-house  the  officers  proceeded  to  the  public  assembly, 
where  the  despatches  were  read  again ;  and  then  the  senior 
officer,  Lucius  Veturius,  gave  in  his  own  words  a  fuller  detail 
of  how  went  the  fight.  When  he  had  done  speaking  to  the 
people,  a  universal  shout  of  rapture  rent  the  air.  The  vast 
assembly  then  separated :  some  hastening  to  the  temples  to 
find  in  devotion  a  vent  for  the  overflowing  excitement  of  their 
hearts  ;  others  seeking  their  homes  to  gladden  their  wives  and 
children  with  the  good  news,  and  to  feast  their  own  eyes  with 
the  sight  of  the  loved  ones,  who  now,  at  last,  were  safe  from 
outrage  and  slaughter.  The  senate  ordained  a  thanksgiving 
of  three  days  for  the  great  deliverance  which  had  been  vouch- 
safed to  Rome  ;  and  throughout  that  period  the  temples  were 
incessantly  crowded  with  exulting  worshipers ;  and  the  ma- 
trons, with  their  children  round  them,  in  their  gayest  attire, 
and  with  joyous  aspects  and  voices,  offered  grateful  praises  to 
the  immortal  gods,  as  if  all  apprehension  of  evil  were  over, 
and  the  war  were  already  ended. 

With  the  revival  of  confidence  came  also  the  revival  of  ac- 
tivity in  traffic  and  commerce,  and  in  all  the  busy  intercourse 
of  daily  life.  A  numbing  load  was  taken  off  each  heart  and 
brain,  and  once  more  men  bought  and  sold,  and  formed  their 
plans  freely,  as  had  been  done  before  the  dire  Carthaginians 
came  into  Italy.  Hannibal  was,  certainly,  still  in  the  land  ; 
but  all  felt  that  his  power  to  destroy  was  broken,  and  that  the 
crisis  of  the  war  fever  was  past.  The  Metaurus,  indeed,  had 
not  only  determined  the  event  of  the  strife  between  Rome 
and  Carthage,  but  it  had  insured  to  Rome  two  centuries  more 
of  almost  unchanged  conquest.  Hannibal  did  actually,  with 
almost  superhuman  skill,  retain  his  hold  on  Southern  Italy 
for  a  few  years  longer ;  but  the  imperial  city  and  her  allies 
were  no  longer  in  danger  from  his  arms,  and,  after  Hannibal's 
downfall,  the  great  military  republic  of  the  ancient  world 
met  in  her  career  of  conquest  no  other  worthy  competitor. 


Il6  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [207  B.C. 

Byron  has  termed  Nero's  march  "  unequaled,"  and  in  the 
magnitude  of  its  consequences  it  is  so.  Viewed  only  as  a 
military  exploit,  it  remains  unparalleled,  save  by  Marlborough's 
bold  march  from  Flanders  to  the  Danube,  in  the  campaign  of 
Blenheim,  and  perhaps  also  by  the  Archduke  Charles's  lateral 
march  in  1796,  by  which  he  overwhelmed  the  French  under 
Jourdain,  and  then,  driving  Moreau  through  the  Black  Forest 
and  across  the  Rhine,  for  a  while  freed  Germany  from  her 
invaders. 

Notes 

1  "  We  advanced  to  Waterloo  as  the  Greeks  did  to  Thermopylae ;  all  of 
us  without  fear,  and  most  of  us  without  hope."  —  Speech  of  General  Foy. 

2  Hamilcar  was  surnamed  Barca,  which  means  the  Thunderbolt.  Sultan 
Bajazet  had  the  similar  surname  of  Yilderim. 

3  Marcellus  had  received  only  an  ovation  for  the  conquest  of  Syracuse. 

4  The  annalists  whom  Livy  copied  spoke  of  Nero's  gaining  repeated  vic- 
tories over  Hannibal,  and  killing  and  taking  his  men  by  tens  of  thousands. 
The  falsehood  of  all  this  is  self-evident.  If  Nero  could  thus  always  beat 
Hannibal,  the  Romans  would  not  have  been  in  such  an  agony  of  dread 
about  Hasdrubal  as  all  writers  describe.  Indeed,  we  have  the  express  tes- 
timony of  Polybius  that  such  statements  as  we  read  in  Livy  of  Marcellus, 
Nero,  and  others  gaining  victories  over  Hannibal  in  Italy  must  be  all  fabri- 
cations of  Roman  vanity.  Polybius  states  that  Hannibal  was  never  defeated 
before  the  battle  of  Zama ;  and  in  another  passage  he  mentions  that  after 
the  defeats  which  Hannibal  inflicted  on  the  Romans  in  the  early  years  of 
the  war,  they  no  longer  dared  face  his  army  in  a  pitched  battle  on  a  fair 
field,  and  yet  they  resolutely  maintained  the  war.  He  rightly  explains  this 
by  referring  to  the  superiority  of  Hannibal's  cavalry,  the  arm  which  gained 
him  all  his  victories.  By  keeping  within  fortified  lines,  or  close  to  the  sides 
of  the  mountains  when  Hannibal  approached  them,  the  Romans  rendered 
his  cavalry  ineffective ;  and  a  glance  at  the  geography  of  Italy  will  show 
how  an  army  can  traverse  the  greater  part  of  that  country  without  venturing 
far  from  the  high  grounds. 

6  Most  probably  during  the  period  of  his  prolonged  consulship,  from  104 
B.C.  to  101  B.C.,  while  he  was  training  his  army  against  the  Cimbri  and  the 
Teutones. 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  the  Me- 
taurus,  207  b.c.,  and  arminius's  victory  over  the 
Roman  Legions  under  Varus,  9  a.d. 

205  to  201  B.C.  Scipio  is  made  consul,  and  carries  the  war 
into  Africa.  He  gains  several  victories  there,  and  the  Car- 
thaginians recall  Hannibal  from  Italy  to  oppose  him.  Battle 
of  Zama  in  201  :  Hannibal  is  defeated,  and  Carthage  sues 


207  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   THE   METAURUS  1 17 

for  peace.  End  of  the  second  Punic  war,  leaving  Rome  con- 
firmed in  the  dominion  of  Italy,  Sicily,  Sardinia,  and  Corsica, 
and  also  mistress  of  great  part  of  Spain,  and  virtually  pre- 
dominant in  North  Africa. 

200.  Rome  makes  war  upon  Philip,  king  of  Macedonia.  She 
pretends  to  take  the  Greek  cities  of  the  Achaean  League  and 
the  ^Etolians  under  her  protection  as  allies.  Philip  is  defeated 
by  the  proconsul  Flaminius  at  Cynoscephalae,  198,  and  begs 
for  peace.  The  Macedonian  influence  is  now  completely  de- 
stroyed in  Greece,  and  the  Roman  established  in  its  stead, 
though  Rome  nominally  acknowledges  the  independence  of 
the  Greek  cities. 

194.  Rome  makes  war  upon  Antiochus,  king  of  Syria.  He 
is  completely  defeated  at  the  battle  of  Magnesia,  192,  and  is 
glad  to  accept  peace  on  conditions  which  leave  him  depend- 
ent upon  Rome. 

200  to  190.  "Thus,  within  the  short  space  of  ten  years, 
was  laid  the  foundation  of  the  Roman  authority  in  the  East, 
and  the  general  state  of  affairs  entirely  changed.  If  Rome 
was  not  yet  the  ruler,  she  was  at  least  the  arbitress  of  the 
world  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Euphrates.  The  power  of  the 
three  principal  states  was  so  completely  humbled  that  they 
durst  not,  without  the  permission  of  Rome,  begin  any  new 
war  ;  the  fourth,  Egypt,  had  already,  in  the  year  201,  placed 
herself  under  the  guardianship  of  Rome ;  and  the  lesser 
powers  followed  of  themselves,  esteeming  it  an  honor  to  be 
called  the  allies  of  Rome.  With  this  name  the  nations  were 
lulled  into  security,  and  brought  under  the  Roman  yoke ;  the 
new  political  system  of  Rome  was  founded  and  strengthened 
partly  by  exciting  and  supporting  the  weaker  states  against 
the  stronger,  however  unjust  the  cause  of  the  former  might 
be,  and  partly  by  factions  which  she  found  means  to  raise  in 
every  state,  even  the  smallest."      [Heeren.] 

172.  War  renewed  between  Macedon  and  Rome.  Decisive 
defeat  of  Perses,  the  Macedonian  king,  by  Paulus  yEmilius  at 
Pydna,  168.     Destruction  of  the  Macedonian  monarchy. 

150.  Rome  oppresses  the  Carthaginians  till  they  are  driven 
to  take  up  arms,  and  the  third  Punic  war  begins.  Carthage 
is  taken  and  destroyed  by  Scipio  yEmilianus,  146,  and  the 
Carthaginian  territory  is  made  a  Roman  province. 


Il8  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [207  B.C. 

146.  In  the  same  year  in  which  Carthage  falls,  Corinth  is 
stormed  by  the  Roman  army  under  Mummius.  The  Achaean 
League  had  been  goaded  into  hostilities  with  Rome  by  means 
similar  to  those  employed  against  Carthage.  The  greater 
part  of  Southern  Greece  is  made  a  Roman  province,  under 
the  name  of  Achaia. 

133.  Numantium  is  destroyed  by  Scipio  iEmilianus.  "The 
war  against  the  Spaniards,  who,  of  all  the  nations  subdued 
by  the  Romans,  defended  their  liberty  with  the  greatest 
obstinacy,  began  in  the  year  200,  six  years  after  the  total 
expulsion  of  the  Carthaginians  from  their  country,  206.  It 
was  exceedingly  obstinate,  partly  from  the  natural  state  of 
the  country,  which  was  thickly  populated,  and  where  every 
place  became  a  fortress;  partly  from  the  courage  of  the 
inhabitants ;  but  at  last  all,  owing  to  the  peculiar  policy  of 
the  Romans,  who  yielded  to  employ  their  allies  to  subdue 
other  nations.  This  war  continued,  almost  without  interrup- 
tion, from  the  year  200  to  133,  and  was  for  the  most  part 
carried  on  at  the  same  time  in  Hispania  Citerior,  where  the 
Celtiberi  were  the  most  formidable  adversaries,  and  in  His- 
pania Ulterior,  where  the  Lusitani  were  equally  powerful. 
Hostilities  were  at  the  highest  pitch  in  195,  under  Cato,  who 
reduced  Hispania  Citerior  to  a  state  of  tranquillity  in  185-179, 
when  the  Celtiberi  were  attacked  in  their  native  territory  ; 
and  155-150,  when  the  Romans  in  both  provinces  were  so 
often  beaten  that  nothing  was  more  dreaded  by  the  soldiers 
at  home  than  to  be  sent  there.  The  extortions  and  perfidy 
of  Servius  Galba  placed  Viriathus,  in  the  year  146,  at  the 
head  of  his  nations,  the  Lusitani :  the  war,  however,  soon 
extended  itself  to  Hispania  Citerior,  where  many  nations,  par- 
ticularly the  Numantines,  took  up  arms  against  Rome,  143. 
Viriathus,  sometimes  victorious  and  sometimes  defeated,  was 
never  more  formidable  than  in  the  moment  of  defeat;  because 
he  knew  how  to  take  advantage  of  his  knowledge  of  the  coun- 
try and  of  the  dispositions  of  his  countrymen.  After  his 
murder,  caused  by  the  treachery  of  Saepio,  140,  Lusitania  was 
subdued ;  but  the  Numantine  war  became  still  more  violent, 
and  the  Numantines  compelled  the  consul  Mancinus  to  a  dis- 
advantageous treaty,  137.  When  Scipio,  in  the  year  133,  put 
an  end  to  this  war,  Spain  was  certainly  tranquil ;  the  north- 


207  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   THE   METAURUS  1 19 

ern  parts,  however,  were  still  unsubdued,  though  the  Romans 
penetrated  as  far  as  Galatia."     [Heeren.] 

134.  Commencement  of  the  revolutionary  century  at  Rome, 
i.e.  from  the  time  of  the  excitement  produced  by  the  at- 
tempts made  by  the  Gracchi  to  reform  the  commonwealth 
to  the  battle  of  Actium,  31  B.C.,  which  established  Octavianus 
Caesar  as  sole  master  of  the  Roman  world.  Throughout  this 
period  Rome  was  engaged  in  important  foreign  wars,  most  of 
which  procured  large  accessions  to  her  territory. 

118  to  106.  The  Jugurthine  war.  Numidia  is  conquered 
and  made  a  Roman  province. 

113  to  1 01.  The  great  and  terrible  war  of  the  Cimbri  and 
Teutones  against  Rome.  These  nations  of  northern  warriors 
slaughter  several  Roman  armies  in  Gaul,  and  in  102  attempt 
to  penetrate  into  Italy.  The  military  genius  of  Marius  here 
saves  his  country;  he  defeats  the  Teutones  near  Aix,  in  Pro- 
vence ;  and  in  the  following  year  he  destroys  the  army  of  the 
Cimbri,  who  had  passed  the  Alps,  near  Vercellse. 

91  to  88.  The  war  of  the  Italian  allies  against  Rome.  This 
was  caused  by  the  refusal  of  Rome  to  concede  to  them  the 
rights  of  Roman  citizenship.  After  a  sanguine  struggle,  Rome 
gradually  grants  it. 

89  to  85.  First  war  of  the  Romans  against  Mithridates  the 
Great,  king  of  Pontus,  who  had  overrun  Asia  Minor,  Mace- 
donia, and  Greece.  Sylla  defeats  his  armies,  and  forces  him 
to  withdraw  his  forces  from  Europe.  Sylla  returns  to  Rome 
to  carry  on  the  civil  war  against  the  son  and  partisans  of 
Marius.     He  makes  himself  dictator. 

74  to  64.  The  last  Mithridatic  wars.  Lucullus,  and  after 
him  Pompeius,  command  against  the  great  king  of  Pontus, 
who  at  last  is  poisoned  by  his  son,  while  designing  to  raise 
the  warlike  tribes  of  the  Danube  against  Rome,  and  to  invade 
Italy  from  the  northeast.  Great  Asiatic  conquests  of  the 
Romans.  Besides  the  ancient  province  of  Pergamus,  the 
maritime  countries  of  Bithynia,  and  nearly  all  Paphlagonia 
and  Pontus,  are  formed  into  a  Roman  province,  under  the 
name  of  Bithynia;  while  on  the  southern  coast  Cilicia  and 
Pamphylia  form  another,  under  the  name  of  Cilicia  ;  Phoenicia 
and  Syria  compose  a  third,  under  the  name  of  Syria.  On  the 
other  hand,  Great  Armenia  is  left  to  Tigranes,  Cappadocia  to 


120  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [207  B.C. 

Ariobarzanes,  the  Bosphorus  to  Pharnaces,  Judaea  to  Hyrca- 
nus ;  and  some  other  small  states  are  also  given  to  petty 
princes,  all  of  whom  remain  dependent  on  Rome. 

58  to  50.    Caesar  conquers  Gaul. 

54.  Crassus  attacks  the  Parthians  with  a  Roman  army,  but 
is  overthrown  and  killed  at  Carrhae  in  Mesopotamia.  His 
lieutenant  Cassius  collects  the  wrecks  of  the  army,  and  pre- 
vents the  Parthians  from  conquering  Syria. 

49  to  45.  The  civil  war  between  Caesar  and  the  Pompeian 
party.  Caesar  drives  Pompeius  out  of  Italy,  conquers  his 
enemy's  forces  in  Spain,  and  then  passes  into  Greece,  where 
Pompeius  and  the  other  aristocratic  chiefs  had  assembled  a 
large  army.  Caesar  gives  them  a  decisive  defeat  at  the  great 
battle  of  Pharsalia.  Pompeius  flies  for  refuge  to  Alexandria, 
where  he  is  assassinated.  Caesar,  who  had  followed  him 
thither,  is  involved  in  a  war  with  the  Egyptians,  in  which  he 
is  finally  victorious.  The  celebrated  Cleopatra  is  made  queen 
of  Egypt.  Caesar  next  marches  into  Pontus,  and  defeats  the 
son  of  Mithridates,  who  had  taken  part  in  the  war  against 
him.  He  then  proceeds  to  the  Roman  province  of  Africa, 
where  some  of  the  Pompeian  chiefs  had  established  them- 
selves, aided  by  Juba,  a  native  prince.  He  overthrows  them 
at  the  battle  of  Thapsus.  He  is  again  obliged  to  lead  an 
army  into  Spain,  where  the  sons  of  Pompeius  had  collected 
the  wrecks  of  their  father's  party.  He  crushes  the  last  of  his 
enemies  at  the  battle  of  Munda.  Under  the  title  of  dictator, 
he  is  sole  master  of  the  Roman  world. 

44.  Caesar  is  killed  in  the  senate-house ;  the  civil  wars  are 
soon  renewed,  Brutus  and  Cassius  being  at  the  head  of  the 
aristocratic  party,  and  the  party  of  Caesar  being  led  by  Mark 
Antony  and  Octavianus  Caesar,  afterwards  Augustus. 

42.  Defeat  and  death  of  Brutus  and  Cassius  at  Philippi. 
Dissensions  soon  break  out  between  Octavianus  Caesar  and 
Antony. 

31.  Antony  is  completely  defeated  by  Octavianus  Caesar 
at  Actium.  He  flies  to  Egypt  with  Cleopatra.  Octavianus 
pursues  him.  Antony  and  Cleopatra  kill  themselves.  Egypt 
becomes  a  Roman  province,  and  Octavianus  Caesar  is  left 
undisputed  master  of  Rome,  and  all  that  is  Rome's. 

The  forty-fourth  year  of  the  reign  of  Augustus,  and  the 


207  B.C.]  BATTLE   OF   THE   METAURUS  121 

first  year  of  the  195th  Olympiad,  is  commonly  assigned  as  the 
date  of  the  Nativity  of  our  Lord.  There  is  much  of  the  beauty 
of  holiness  in  the  remarks  with  which  the  American  historian 
Eliot  closes  his  survey  of  the  conquering  career  and  civil 
downfall  of  the  Roman  commonwealth :  — 

"  So  far  as  humility  amongst  men  was  necessary  for  the 
preparation  of  a  truer  freedom  than  could  ever  be  known 
under  heathenism,  the  part  of  Rome,  however  dreadful,  was 
yet  sublime.  It  was  not  to  unite,  to  discipline,  or  to  fortify 
humanity,  but  to  enervate,  to  loosen,  and  to  scatter  its  forces, 
that  the  people  whose  history  we  have  read  were  allowed  to 
conquer  the  earth,  and  were  then  themselves  reduced  to  deep 
submission.  Every  good  labor  of  theirs  that  failed  was,  by 
reason  of  what  we  esteem  its  failure,  a  step  gained  nearer  to 
the  end  of  the  well-nigh  universal  evil  that  prevailed ;  while 
every  bad  achievement  that  may  seem  to  us  to  have  succeeded, 
temporarily  or  lastingly,  with  them  was  equally,  by  reason  of 
its  success,  a  progress  towards  the  good  of  which  the  coming 
would  have  been  longed  and  prayed  for  could  it  have  been 
comprehended.  Alike  in  the  virtues  and  in  the  vices  of 
antiquity,  we  may  read  the  progress  towards  its  humiliation.1 
Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  it  must  not  seem,  at  the  last,  that  the 
disposition  of  the  Romans  or  of  mankind  to  submission  was 
secured  solely  through  the  errors  and  the  apparently  ineffec- 
tual toils  which  we  have  traced  back  to  these  times  of  old. 
Desires  too  true  to  have  been  wasted,  and  strivings  too 
humane  to  have  been  unproductive,  though  all  were  over- 
shadowed by  passing  wrongs,  still  gleam  as  if  in  anticipation 
or  in  preparation  of  the  advancing  day. 

"  At  length,  when  it  had  been  proved  by  ages  of  conflict 
and  loss  that  no  lasting  joy  and  no  abiding  truth  could  be 
procured  through  the  power,  the  freedom,  or  the  faith  of 
mankind,  the  angels  sang  their  song  in  which  the  glory  of 
God  and  the  good-will  of  men  were  together  blended.  The 
universe  was  wrapped  in  momentary  tranquillity,  and  '  peace- 
ful was  the  night '  above  the  manger  at  Bethlehem.  We  may 
believe  that  when  the  morning  came,  the  ignorance,  the  con- 
fusion, and  the  servitude  of  humanity  had  left  their  darkest 
forms  amongst  the  midnight  clouds.  It  was  still,  indeed, 
beyond  the  power  of  man  to  lay  hold  securely  of  the  charity 


122  DECISIVE  BATTLES  [207  B.C. 

and  the  regeneration  that  were  henceforth  to  be  his  law ;  and 
the  indefinable  terrors  of  the  future,  whether  seen  from  the 
West  or  from  the  East,  were  not  at  once  to  be  dispelled. 
But  before  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Augustus,  in  the  midst 
of  his  fallen  subjects,  the  business  of  the  Father  had  already- 
been  begun  in  the  temple  at  Jerusalem ;  and,  near  by,  the 
Son  was  increasing  in  wisdom  and  in  stature,  and  in  favor 
with  God  and  man." 

1  Note.  —  "  The  Christian  revelation,"  says  Leland,  in  his  truly  admirable 
work  on  the  subject,  "  was  made  to  the  world  at  a  time  when  it  was  most 
wanted ;  when  the  darkness  and  corruption  of  mankind  were  arrived  at  the 
height.  ...  If  it  had  been  published  much  sooner,  and  before  there  had 
been  a  full  trial  made  of  what  was  to  be  expected  from  human  wisdom  and 
philosophy,  the  great  need  men  stood  in  of  such  an  extraordinary  and  divine 
dispensation  would  not  have  been  so  apparent." 


9a.d.]  ARMINIUS  123 


CHAPTER   V 

Victory  of  Arminius  over  the  Roman  Legions  under  Varus,  9  a.d. 

"  Hac  clade  factum,  ut  Imperium  quod  in  littore  oceani  non  steterat.  in 
ripa  Rheni  fluminis  staret."  —  Florus. 

TO  a  truly  illustrious  Frenchman,  whose  reverses  as  a 
minister  can  never  obscure  his  achievements  in  the 
world  of  letters,  we  are  indebted  for  the  most  pro- 
found and  most  eloquent  estimate  that  we  possess  of  the 
importance  of  the  Germanic  element  in  European  civiliza- 
tion, and  of  the  extent  to  which  the  human  race  is  indebted 
to  those  brave  warriors  who  long  were  the  unconquered 
antagonists,  and  finally  became  the  conquerors,  of  Imperial 
Rome. 

Twenty-three  eventful  years  have  passed  away  since  M. 
Guizot  delivered  from  the  chair  of  modern  history  at  Paris 
his  course  of  lectures  on  the  History  of  Civilization  in  Europe. 
During  those  years  the  spirit  of  earnest  inquiry  into  the  germs 
and  early  developments  of  existing  institutions  has  become 
more  and  more  active  and  universal ;  and  the  merited  celeb- 
rity of  M.  Guizot's  work  has  proportionally  increased.  Its 
admirable  analysis  of  the  complex  political  and  social  organi- 
zations of  which  the  modern  civilized  world  is  made  up  must 
have  led  thousands  to  trace  with  keener  interest  the  great 
crises  of  times  past,  by  which  the  characteristics  of  the  pres- 
ent were  determined.  The  narrative  of  one  of  these  great 
crises,  of  the  epoch  9  a.d.,  when  Germany  took  up  arms  for 
her  independence  against  Roman  invasion,  has  for  us  this 
special  attraction  —  that  it  forms  part  of  our  own  national 
history.  Had  Arminius  been  supine  or  unsuccessful,  our 
Germanic  ancestors  would  have  been  enslaved  or  extermi- 
nated in  their  original  seats  along  the  Eyder  and  the  Elbe ; 
this  island  would  never  have  borne  the  name  of  England,  and 


124  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [9  a.d. 

"  we,  this  great  English  nation,  whose  race  and  language  are 
now  overrunning  the  earth,  from  one  end  of  it  to  the  other," 
[Arnold]  would  have  been  utterly  cut  off  from  existence. 

Arnold  may,  indeed,  go  too  far  in  holding  that  we  are 
wholly  unconnected  in  race  with  the  Romans  and  Britons 
who  inhabited  this  country  before  the  coming  over  of  the 
Saxons ;  that,  "  nationally  speaking,  the  history  of  Caesar's 
invasion  has  no  more  to  do  with  us  than  the  natural  history 
of  the  animals  which  then  inhabited  our  forests."  There 
seems  ample  evidence  to  prove  that  the  Romanized  Celts, 
whom  our  Teutonic  forefathers  found  here,  influenced  mate- 
rially the  character  of  our  nation.  But  the  main  stream  of 
our  people  was  and  is  Germanic.  Our  language  alone  deci- 
sively proves  this.  Arminius  is  far  more  truly  one  of  our 
national  heroes  than  Caractacus :  and  it  was  our  own  pri- 
meval fatherland  that  the  brave  German  rescued  when  he 
slaughtered  the  Roman  legions  eighteen  centuries  ago  in  the 
marshy  glens  between  the  Lippe  and  the  Ems. 

Dark  and  disheartening,  even  to  heroic  spirits,  must  have 
seemed  the  prospects  of  Germany  when  Arminius  planned 
the  general  rising  of  his  countrymen  against  Rome.  Half 
the  land  was  occupied  by  Roman  garrisons ;  and,  what  was 
worse,  many  of  the  Germans  seemed  patiently  acquiescent 
in  their  state  of  bondage.  The  braver  portion,  whose  patri- 
otism could  be  relied  on,  was  ill-armed  and  undisciplined ; 
while  the  enemy's  troops  consisted  of  veterans  in  the  highest 
state  of  equipment  and  training,  familiarized  with  victory, 
and  commanded  by  officers  of  proved  skill  and  valor.  The 
resources  of  Rome  seemed  boundless ;  her  tenacity  of  pur- 
pose was  believed  to  be  invincible.  There  was  no  hope  of 
foreign  sympathy  or  aid ;  for  the  self-governing  powers  that 
had  filled  the  old  world  had  bent  one  after  another  before 
the  rising  power  of  Rome,  and  had  vanished.  The  earth 
seemed  left  void  of  independent  nations. 

The  German  chieftain  knew  well  the  gigantic  power  of 
the  oppressor.  Arminius  was  no  rude  savage,  fighting  out 
of  mere  animal  instinct,  or  in  ignorance  of  the  might  of  his 
adversary.  He  was  familiar  with  the  Roman  language  and 
civilization ;  he  had  served  in  the  Roman  armies ;  he  had 
been  admitted  to  the  Roman  citizenship,  and  raised  to  the 


9a.d.]  ARMINIUS  125 

dignity  of  the  equestrian  order.  It  was  part  of  the  subtle 
policy  of  Rome  to  confer  rank  and  privileges  on  the  youth 
of  the  leading  families  in  the  nations  which  she  wished  to 
enslave.  Among  other  young  German  chieftains,  Arminius 
and  his  brother,  who  were  the  heads  of  the  noblest  house  in 
the  tribe  of  the  Cherusci,  had  been  selected  as  fit  objects  for 
the  exercise  of  this  insidious  system.  Roman  refinements 
and  dignities  succeeded  in  denationalizing  the  brother,  who 
assumed  the  Roman  name  of  Flavius,  and  adhered  to  Rome 
throughout  all  her  wars  against  his  country.  Arminius 
remained  unbought  by  honors  or  wealth,  uncorrupted  by 
refinement  or  luxury.  He  aspired  to  and  obtained  from 
Roman  enmity  a  higher  title  than  ever  could  have  been 
given  him  by  Roman  favor.  It  is  in  the  page  of  Rome's 
greatest  historian  that  his  name  has  come  down  to  us  with 
the  proud  addition  of  "  Liberator  haud  dubie  Germanise." 

Often  must  the  young  chieftain,  while  meditating  the 
exploit  which  has  thus  immortalized  him,  have  anxiously 
revolved  in  his  mind  the  fate  of  the  many  great  men  who 
had  been  crushed  in  the  attempt  which  he  was  about  to 
renew — the  attempt  to  stay  the  chariot-wheels  of  triumphant 
Rome.  Could  he  hope  to  succeed  where  Hannibal  and 
Mithridates  had  perished  ?  What  had  been  the  doom  of 
Viriathus  ?  and  what  warning  against  vain  valor  was  written 
on  the  desolate  site  where  Numantia  once  had  flourished  ? 
Nor  was  a  caution  wanting  in  scenes  nearer  home  and  in 
more  recent  times.  The  Gauls  had  fruitlessly  struggled  for 
eight  years  against  Caesar;  and  the  gallant  Vercingetorix, 
who  in  the  last  year  of  the  war  had  roused  all  his  country- 
men to  insurrection,  who  had  cut  off  Roman  detachments, 
and  brought  Caesar  himself  to  the  extreme  of  peril  at  Alesia 
—  he,  too,  had  finally  succumbed,  had  been  led  captive  in 
Caesar's  triumph,  and  had  then  been  butchered  in  cold  blood 
in  a  Roman  dungeon. 

It  was  true  that  Rome  was  no  longer  the  great  military 
republic  which  for  so  many  ages  had  shattered  the  kingdoms 
of  the  world.  Her  system  of  government  was  changed ; 
and,  after  a  century  of  revolution  and  civil  war,  she  had 
placed  herself  under  the  despotism  of  a  single  ruler.  But 
the  discipline  of  her  troops  was  yet  unimpaired,  and  her  war- 


126  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [9  a.d. 

like  spirit  seemed  unabated.  The  first  years  of  the  empire 
had  been  signalized  by  conquests  as  valuable  as  any  gained 
by  the  republic  in  a  corresponding  period.  It  is  a  great  fal- 
lacy, though  apparently  sanctioned  by  great  authorities,  to 
suppose  that  the  foreign  policy  pursued  by  Augustus  was 
pacific.  He  certainly  recommended  such  a  policy  to  his  suc- 
cessors, either  from  timidity  or  from  jealousy  of  their  fame 
outshining  his  own ;  but  he  himself,  until  Arminius  broke  his 
spirit,  had  followed  a  very  different  course.  Besides  his  Span- 
ish wars,  his  generals,  in  a  series  of  principally  aggressive  cam- 
paigns, had  extended  the  Roman  frontier  from  the  Alps  to 
the  Danube ;  and  had  reduced  into  subjection  the  large  and 
important  countries  that  now  form  the  territories  of  all  Aus- 
tria south  of  that  river,  and  of  East  Switzerland,  Lower 
Wurtemberg,  Bavaria,  the  Valtelline,  and  the  Tyrol.  While 
the  progress  of  the  Roman  arms  thus  pressed  the  Germans 
from  the  south,  still  more  formidable  inroads  had  been  made 
by  the  imperial  legions  in  the  west.  Roman  armies,  moving 
from  the  province  of  Gaul,  established  a  chain  of  fortresses 
along  the  right  as  well  as  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  and,  in 
a  series  of  victorious  campaigns,  advanced  their  eagles  as  far 
as  the  Elbe,  which  now  seemed  added  to  the  list  of  vassal 
rivers  —  to  the  Nile,  the  Rhine,  the  Rhone,  the  Danube,  the 
Tagus,  the  Seine,  and  many  more  —  that  acknowledged  the 
supremacy  of  the  Tiber.  Roman  fleets  also,  sailing  from 
the  harbors  of  Gaul  along  the  German  coasts  and  up  the 
estuaries,  cooperated  with  the  land  forces  of  the  empire,  and 
seemed  to  display,  even  more  decisively  than  her  armies,  her 
overwhelming  superiority  over  the  rude  Germanic  tribes. 
Throughout  the  territory  thus  invaded  the  Romans  had,  with 
their  usual  military  skill,  established  chains  of  fortified  posts ; 
and  a  powerful  army  of  occupation  was  kept  on  foot,  ready 
to  move  instantly  on  any  spot  where  a  popular  outbreak 
might  be  attempted. 

Vast,  however,  and  admirably  organized  as  the  fabric  of 
Roman  power  appeared  on  the  frontiers  and  in  the  prov- 
inces, there  was  rottenness  at  the  core.  In  Rome's  unceas- 
ing hostilities  with  foreign  foes,  and,  still  more,  in  her  long 
series  of  desolating  civil  wars,  the  free  middle  classes  of 
Italy  had  almost  wholly  disappeared.     Above  the  position 


9a.d.]  ARMINIUS  127 

which  they  had  occupied,  an  oligarchy  of  wealth  had  reared 
itself ;  beneath  that  position  a  degraded  mass  of  poverty 
and  misery  was  fermenting.  Slaves,  the  chance  sweepings 
of  every  conquered  country,  shoals  of  Africans,  Sardinians, 
Asiatics,  Illyrians,  and  others,  made  up  the  bulk  of  the  pop- 
ulation of  the  Italian  peninsula.  The  foulest  profligacy  of 
manners  was  general  in  all  ranks.  In  universal  weariness 
of  revolution  and  civil  war,  and  in  consciousness  of  being 
too  debased  for  self-government,  the  nation  had  submitted 
itself  to  the  absolute  authority  of  Augustus.  Adulation  was 
now  the  chief  function  of  the  senate ;  and  the  gifts  of  genius 
and  accomplishments  of  art  were  devoted  to  the  elaboration 
of  eloquently  false  panegyrics  upon  the  prince  and  his  fav- 
orite courtiers.  With  bitter  indignation  must  the  German 
chieftain  have  beheld  all  this,  and  contrasted  with  it  the 
rough  worth  of  his  own  countrymen — their  bravery,  their 
fidelity  to  their  word,  their  manly  independence  of  spirit, 
their  love  of  their  national  free  institutions,  and  their  loath- 
ing of  every  pollution  and  meanness.  Above  all,  he  must 
have  thought  of  the  domestic  virtues  that  hallowed  a  Ger- 
man home ;  of  the  respect  there  shown  to  the  female  char- 
acter, and  of  the  pure  affection  by  which  that  respect  was 
repaid.  His  soul  must  have  burned  within  him  at  the  con- 
templation of  such  a  race  yielding  to  these  debased  Italians. 
Still,  to  persuade  the  Germans  to  combine,  in  spite  of  their 
frequent  feuds  among  themselves,  in  one  sudden  outbreak 
against  Rome ;  to  keep  the  scheme  concealed  from  the 
Romans  until  the  hour  for  action  had  arrived;  and  then, 
without  possessing  a  single  walled  town,  without  military 
stores,  without  training,  to  teach  his  insurgent  countrymen 
to  defeat  veteran  armies  and  storm  fortifications,  seemed  so 
perilous  an  enterprise  that  probably  Arminius  would  have 
receded  from  it,  had  not  a  stronger  feeling  even  than  patri- 
otism urged  him  on.  Among  the  Germans  of  high  rank  who 
had  most  readily  submitted  to  the  invaders  and  become  zeal- 
ous partisans  of  Roman  authority,  was  a  chieftain  named 
Segestes.  His  daughter,  Thusnelda,  was  preeminent  among 
the  noble  maidens  of  Germany.  Arminius  had  sought  her 
hand  in  marriage ;  but  Segestes,  who  probably  discerned  the 
young  chief's   disaffection   to    Rome,  forbade   his  suit,  and 


128  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [9  a.d. 

strove  to  preclude  all  communication  between  him  and  his 
daughter.  Thusnelda,  however,  sympathized  far  more  with 
the  heroic  spirit  of  her  lover  than  with  the  time-serving  pol- 
icy of  her  father.  An  elopement  baffled  the  precautions  of 
Segestes ;  who,  disappointed  in  his  hope  of  preventing  the 
marriage,  accused  Arminius,  before  the  Roman  governor,  of 
having  carried  off  his  daughter,  and  of  planning  treason 
against  Rome.  Thus  assailed,  and  dreading  to  see  his  bride 
torn  from  him  by  the  officials  of  the  foreign  oppressor, 
Arminius  delayed  no  longer,  but  bent  all  his  energies  to 
organize  and  execute  a  general  insurrection  of  the  great 
mass  of  his  countrymen,  who  hitherto  had  submitted  in  sul- 
len inertness  to  the  Roman  dominion. 

A  change  of  governors  had  recently  taken  place,  which, 
while  it  materially  favored  the  ultimate  success  of  the  insur- 
gents, served,  by  the  immediate  aggravation  of  the  Roman 
oppressions  which  it  produced,  to  make  the  native  popula- 
tion more  universally  eager  to  take  arms.  Tiberius,  who  was 
afterwards  emperor,  had  lately  been  recalled  from  the  com- 
mand in  Germany,  and  sent  into  Pannonia  to  put  down  a 
dangerous  revolt  which  had  broken  out  against  the  Romans 
in  that  province.  The  German  patriots  were  thus  delivered 
from  the  stern  supervision  of  one  of  the  most  suspicious  of 
mankind,  and  were  also  relieved  from  having  to  contend 
against  the  high  military  talents  of  a  veteran  commander, 
who  thoroughly  understood  their  national  character  and  the 
nature  of  the  country,  which  he  himself  had  principally  sub- 
dued. In  the  room  of  Tiberius,  Augustus  sent  into  Germany 
Quintilius  Varus,  who  had  lately  returned  from  the  procon- 
sulate of  Syria.  Varus  was  a  true  representative  of  the 
higher  classes  of  the  Romans ;  among  whom  a  general  taste 
for  literature,  a  keen  susceptibility  to  all  intellectual  gratifica- 
tions, a  minute  acquaintance  with  the  principles  and  practice 
of  their  own  national  jurisprudence,  a  careful  training  in  the 
schools  of  the  rhetoricians,  and  a  fondness  for  either  partak- 
ing in  or  watching  the  intellectual  strife  of  forensic  oratory, 
had  become  generally  diffused ;  without,  however,  having 
humanized  the  old  Roman  spirit  of  cruel  indifference  for 
human  feelings  and  human  sufferings,  and  without  acting  as 
the  least  check  on  unprincipled  avarice  and  ambition,  or  on 


9a.d.]  ARMINIUS  129 

habitual  and  gross  profligacy.  Accustomed  to  govern  the 
depraved  and  debased  natives  of  Syria,  a  country  where 
courage  in  man  and  virtue  in  woman  had  for  centuries  been 
unknown,  Varus  thought  that  he  might  gratify  his  licentious 
and  rapacious  passions  with  equal  impunity  among  the  high- 
minded  sons  and  pure-spirited  daughters  of  Germany.  When 
the  general  of  an  army  sets  the  example  of  outrages  of  this 
description,  he  is  soon  faithfully  imitated  by  his  officers,  and 
surpassed  by  his  still  more  brutal  soldiery.  The  Romans 
now  habitually  indulged  in  those  violations  of  the  sanctity 
of  the  domestic  shrine,  and  those  insults  upon  honor  and 
modesty,  by  which  far  less  gallant  spirits  than  those  of  our 
Teutonic  ancestors  have  often  been  maddened  into  insur- 
rection.1 

Arminius  found  among  the  other  German  chiefs  many  who 
sympathized  with  him  in  his  indignation  at  their  country's 
debasement,  and  many  whom  private  wrongs  had  stung  yet 
more  deeply.  There  was  little  difficulty  in  collecting  bold 
leaders  for  an  attack  on  the  oppressors,  and  little  fear  of  the 
population  not  rising  readily  at  those  leaders'  call.  But  to 
declare  open  war  against  Rome,  and  to  encounter  Varus's 
army  in  a  pitched  battle,  would  have  been  merely  rushing  upon 
certain  destruction.  Varus  had  three  legions  under  him,  a 
force  which,  after  allowing  for  detachments,  cannot  be  esti- 
mated at  less  than  fourteen  thousand  Roman  infantry.  He 
had  also  eight  or  nine  hundred  Roman  cavalry,  and  at  least 
an  equal  number  of  horse  and  foot  sent  from  the  allied  states, 
or  raised  among  those  provincials  who  had  not  received  the 
Roman  franchise. 

It  was  not  merely  the  number,  but  the  quality  of  this  force 
that  made  it  formidable ;  and  however  contemptible  Varus 
might  be  as  a  general,  Arminius  well  knew  how  admirably 
the  Roman  armies  were  organized  and  officered,  and  how 
perfectly  the  legionaries  understood  every  maneuver  and 
every  duty  which  the  varying  emergencies  of  a  stricken  field 
might  require.  Stratagem  was,  therefore,  indispensable ;  and 
it  was  necessary  to  blind  Varus  to  his  schemes  until  a  favor- 
able opportunity  should  arrive  for  striking  a  decisive  blow. 

For  this  purpose  the  German  confederates  frequented  the 
headquarters  of  Varus,  which  seem  to  have  been  near  the  cen- 


130  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [9  a.d. 

ter  of  the  modern  country  of  Westphalia,  where  the  Roman 
general  conducted  himself  with  all  the  arrogant  security  of 
the  governor  of  a  perfectly  submissive  province.  There 
Varus  gratified  at  once  his  vanity,  his  rhetorical  taste,  and 
his  avarice,  by  holding  courts,  to  which  he  summoned  the 
Germans  for  the  settlement  of  all  their  disputes,  while  a  bar 
of  Roman  advocates  attended  to  argue  the  cases  before  the 
tribunal  of  the  proconsul,  who  did  not  omit  the  opportunity 
of  exacting  court  fees  and  accepting  bribes.  Varus  trusted 
implicitly  to  the  respect  which  the  Germans  pretended  to  pay 
to  his  abilities  as  a  judge,  and  to  the  interest  which  they 
affected  to  take  in  the  forensic  eloquence  of  their  conquerors. 
Meanwhile  a  succession  of  heavy  rains  rendered  the  country 
more  difficult  for  the  operations  of  regular  troops ;  and  Ar- 
minius,  seeing  that  the  infatuation  of  Varus  was  complete, 
secretly  directed  the  tribes  near  the  Weser  and  the  Ems  to 
take  up  arms  in  open  revolt  against  the  Romans.  This  was 
represented  to  Varus  as  an  occasion  which  required  his 
prompt  attendance  at  the  spot ;  but  he  was  kept  in  studied 
ignorance  of  its  being  part  of  a  concerted  national  rising; 
and  he  still  looked  on  Arminius  as  his  submissive  vassal, 
whose  aid  he  might  rely  on  in  facilitating  the  march  of  his 
troops  against  the  rebels,  and  in  extinguishing  the  local  dis- 
turbance. He  therefore  set  his  army  in  motion,  and  marched 
eastward  in  a  line  parallel  to  the  course  of  the  Lippe.  For 
some  distance  his  route  lay  along  a  level  plain ;  but  on  arriv- 
ing at  the  tract  between  the  curve  of  the  upper  part  of  that 
stream  and  the  sources  of  the  Ems,  the  country  assumes  a 
very  different  character;  and  here,  in  the  territory  of  the 
modern  little  principality  of  Lippe,  it  was  that  Arminius  had 
fixed  the  scene  of  his  enterprise. 

A  woody  and  hilly  region  intervenes  between  the  heads  of 
the  two  rivers,  and  forms  the  watershed  of  their  streams. 
This  region  still  retains  the  name  (Teutoberger  Wald  — 
Teutobergiensis  saltus)  which  it  bore  in  the  days  of  Arminius. 
The  nature  of  the  ground  has  probably  also  remained  unal- 
tered. The  eastern  part  of  it,  round  Detmoldt,  the  present 
capital  of  the  principality  of  Lippe,  is  described  by  a  modern 
German  scholar,  Dr.  Plate,  as  being  "  a  table-land  intersected 
by  numerous  deep  and  narrow  valleys,  which  in  some  places 


9a.d.]  ARMINIUS  131 

form  small  plains,  surrounded  by  steep  mountains  and  rocks, 
and  only  accessible  by  narrow  denies.  All  the  valleys  are 
traversed  by  rapid  streams,  shallow  in  the  dry  season,  but 
subject  to  sudden  swellings  in  autumn  and  winter.  The  vast 
forests  which  cover  the  summits  and  slopes  of  the  hills  con- 
sist chiefly  of  oak ;  there  is  little  underwood,  and  both  men 
and  horse  would  move  with  ease  in  the  forests  if  the  ground 
were  not  broken  by  gullies  or  rendered  impracticable  by 
fallen  trees."  This  is  the  district  to  which  Varus  is  supposed 
to  have  marched;  and  Dr.  Plate  adds  that  "the  names  of 
several  localities  on  and  near  that  spot  seem  to  indicate  that 
a  great  battle  had  once  been  fought  there.  We  find  the 
names  '  das  Winnefeld  '  (the  field  of  victory),  '  die  Knochen- 
bahn'  (the  bone-lane),  'die  Knochenleke '  (the  bone-brook), 
'der  Mordkessel'  (the  kettle  of  slaughter),  and  others." 

Contrary  to  the  usual  strict  principles  of  Roman  discipline, 
Varus  had  suffered  his  army  to  be  accompanied  and  impeded 
by  an  immense  train  of  baggage  wagons  and  by  a  rabble  of 
camp-followers,  as  if  his  troops  had  been  merely  changing 
their  quarters  in  a  friendly  country.  When  the  long  array 
quitted  the  firm  level  ground  and  began  to  wind  its  way 
among  the  woods,  the  marshes,  and  the  ravines,  the  diffi- 
culties of  the  march,  even  without  the  intervention  of  an 
armed  foe,  became  fearfully  apparent.  In  many  places  the 
soil,  sodden  with  rain,  was  impracticable  for  cavalry  and  even 
for  infantry,  until  trees  had  been  felled,  and  a  rude  causeway 
formed  through  the  morass. 

The  duties  of  the  engineer  were  familiar  to  all  who  served 
in  the  Roman  armies.  But  the  crowd  and  confusion  of  the 
columns  embarrassed  the  working  parties  of  the  soldiery,  and 
in  the  midst  of  their  toil  and  disorder  the  word  was  suddenly 
passed  through  their  ranks  that  the  rear-guard  was  attacked 
by  the  barbarians.  Varus  resolved  on  pressing  forward ;  but 
a  heavy  discharge  of  missiles  from  the  woods  on  either  flank 
taught  him  how  serious  was  the  peril,  and  he  saw  the  best 
men  falling  round  him  without  the  opportunity  of  retaliation  ; 
for  his  light-armed  auxiliaries,  who  were  principally  of  Ger- 
manic race,  now  rapidly  deserted,  and  it  was  impossible  to 
deploy  the  legionaries  on  such  broken  ground  for  a  charge 
against  the  enemy.     Choosing  one  of  the  most  open  and  firm 


132  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [9  a.d. 

spots  which  they  could  force  their  way  to,  the  Romans  halted 
for  the  night ;  and,  faithful  to  their  national  discipline  and 
tactics,  formed  their  camp  amid  the  harassing  attacks  of  the 
rapidly  thronging  foes,  with  the  elaborate  toil  and  systematic 
skill  the  traces  of  which  are  impressed  permanently  on  the 
soil  of  so  many  European  countries,  attesting  the  presence 
in  the  olden  time  of  the  imperial  eagles. 

On  the  morrow  the  Romans  renewed  their  march,  the 
veteran  officers  who  served  under  Varus  now  probably  direct- 
ing the  operations,  and  hoping  to  find  the  Germans  drawn  up 
to  meet  them,  in  which  case  they  relied  on  their  own  supe- 
rior discipline  and  tactics  for  such  a  victory  as  should  reassure 
the  supremacy  of  Rome.  But  Arminius  was  far  too  sage  a 
commander  to  lead  on  his  followers,  with  their  unwieldy 
broadswords  and  inefficient  defensive  armor,  against  the  Ro- 
man legionaries,  fully  armed  with  helmet,  cuirass,  greaves, 
and  shield  ;  who  were  skilled  to  commence  the  conflict  with  a 
murderous  volley  of  heavy  javelins,  hurled  upon  the  foe  when 
a  few  yards  distant,  and  then,  with  their  short  cut-and-thrust 
swords,  to  hew  their  way  through  all  opposition ;  preserving 
the  utmost  steadiness  and  coolness,  and  obeying  each  word 
of  command  in  the  midst  of  strife  and  slaughter  with  the 
same  precision  and  alertness  as  if  upon  parade.  Arminius 
suffered  the  Romans  to  march  out  from  their  camp,  to  form 
first  in  line  for  action,  and  then  in  column  for  marching,  with- 
out the  show  of  opposition.  For  some  distance  Varus  was 
allowed  to  move  on,  only  harassed  by  slight  skirmishes,  but 
struggling  with  difficulty  through  the  broken  ground,  the 
toil  and  distress  of  his  men  being  aggravated  by  heavy  tor- 
rents of  rain,  which  burst  upon  the  devoted  legions  as  if  the 
angry  gods  of  Germany  were  pouring  out  the  vials  of  their 
wrath  upon  the  invaders.  After  some  little  time  their  van 
approached  a  ridge  of  high  woody  ground,  which  is  one  of 
the  offshoots  of  the  great  Hercynian  forest,  and  is  situated 
between  the  modern  villages  of  Driburg  and  Bielefeld. 
Arminius  had  caused  barricades  of  hewn  trees  to  be  formed 
here,  so  as  to  add  to  the  natural  difficulties  of  the  passage. 
Fatigue  and  discouragement  now  began  to  betray  themselves 
in  the  Roman  ranks.  Their  line  became  less  steady ;  bag- 
gage wagons  were  abandoned  from  the  impossibility  of  fore- 


9A.D.]  ARMINIUS  133 

ing  them  along ;  and,  as  this  happened,  many  soldiers  left 
their  ranks  and  crowded  round  the  wagons  to  secure  the  most 
valuable  portions  of  their  property ;  each  was  busy  about  his 
own  affairs,  and  purposely  slow  in  hearing  the  word  of  com- 
mand from  his  officers.  Arminius  now  gave  the  signal  for  a 
general  attack.  The  fierce  shouts  of  the  Germans  pealed 
through  the  gloom  of  the  forests,  and  in  thronging  multitudes 
they  assailed  the  flanks  of  the  invaders,  pouring  in  clouds  of 
darts  on  the  encumbered  legionaries,  as  they  struggled  up 
the  glens  or  floundered  in  the  morasses,  and  watching  every 
opportunity  of  charging  through  the  intervals  of  the  dis- 
jointed column,  and  so  cutting  off  the  communication  between 
its  several  brigades.  Arminius,  with  a  chosen  band  of  per- 
sonal retainers  round  him,  cheered  on  his  countrymen  by 
voice  and  example.  He  and  his  men  aimed  their  weapons 
particularly  at  the  horses  of  the  Roman  cavalry.  The 
wounded  animals,  slipping  about  in  the  mire  and  their  own 
blood,  threw  their  riders,  and  plunged  among  the  ranks  of 
the  legions,  disordering  all  round  them.  Varus  now  ordered 
the  troops  to  be  countermarched,  in  the  hope  of  reaching  the 
nearest  Roman  garrison  on  the  Lippe.2  But  retreat  was  now 
as  impracticable  as  advance ;  and  the  falling  back  of  the 
Romans  only  augmented  the  courage  of  their  assailants,  and 
caused  fiercer  and  more  frequent  charges  on  the  flanks  of  the 
disheartened  army.  The  Roman  officer  who  commanded  the 
cavalry,  Numonius  Vala,  rode  off  with  his  squadrons,  in 
the  vain  hope  of  escaping  by  thus  abandoning  his  comrades. 
Unable  to  keep  together,  or  force  their  way  across  the  woods 
and  swamps,  the  horsemen  were  overpowered  in  detail  and 
slaughtered  to  the  last  man.  The  Roman  infantry  still  held 
together  and  resisted,  but  more  through  the  instinct  of  disci- 
pline and  bravery  than  from  any  hope  of  success  or  escape. 
Varus,  after  being  severely  wounded  in  a  charge  of  the  Ger- 
mans against  his  part  of  the  column,  committed  suicide  to 
avoid  falling  into  the  hands  of  those  whom  he  had  exasper- 
ated by  his  oppressions.  One  of  the  lieutenant-generals  of 
the  army  fell  fighting ;  the  other  surrendered  to  the  enemy. 
But  mercy  to  a  fallen  foe  had  never  been  a  Roman  virtue, 
and  those  among  her  legions  who  now  laid  down  their  arms 
in  hope  of  quarter  drank  deep  of  the  cup  of  suffering  which 


134  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [9  a.d. 

Rome  had  held  to  the  lips  of  many  a  brave  but  unfortunate 
enemy.  The  infuriated  Germans  slaughtered  their  oppress- 
ors with  deliberate  ferocity ;  and  those  prisoners  who  were 
not  hewn  to  pieces  on  the  spot  were  only  preserved  to  perish 
by  a  more  cruel  death  in  cold  blood. 

The  bulk  of  the  Roman  army  fought  steadily  and  stub- 
bornly, frequently  repelling  the  masses  of  the  assailants,  but 
gradually  losing  the  compactness  of  their  array,  and  becom- 
ing weaker  and  weaker  beneath  the  incessant  shower  of  darts 
and  the  reiterated  assaults  of  the  vigorous  and  unencumbered 
Germans.  At  last,  in  a  series  of  desperate  attacks  the  column 
was  pierced  through  and  through,  two  of  the  eagles  captured, 
and  the  Roman  host,  which  on  the  yester-morning  had  marched 
forth  in  such  pride  and  might,  now  broken  up  into  confused 
fragments,  either  fell  fighting  beneath  the  overpowering  num- 
bers of  the  enemy,  or  perished  in  the  swamps  and  woods  in 
unavailing  efforts  at  flight.  Few,  very  few,  ever  saw  again 
the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine.  One  body  of  brave  veterans, 
arraying  themselves  in  a  ring  on  a  little  mound,  beat  off  every 
charge  of  the  Germans,  and  prolonged  their  honorable  resist- 
ance to  the  close  of  that  dreadful  day.  The  traces  of  a  feeble 
attempt  at  forming  a  ditch  and  mound  attested  in  after-years 
the  spot  where  the  last  of  the  Romans  passed  their  night  of 
suffering  and  despair.  But  on  the  morrow  this  remnant  also, 
worn  out  with  hunger,  wounds,  and  toil,  was  charged  by  the 
victorious  Germans,  and  either  massacred  on  the  spot,  or 
offered  up  in  fearful  rites  at  the  altars  of  the  deities  of  the 
old  mythology  of  the  north. 

A  gorge  in  the  mountain  ridge,  through  which  runs  the 
modern  road  between  Paderborn  and  Pyrmont,  leads  from 
the  spot  where  the  heat  of  the  battle  raged  to  the  Exter- 
steine,  a  cluster  of  bold  and  grotesque  rocks  of  sandstone, 
near  which  is  a  small  sheet  of  water,  overshadowed  by  a  grove 
of  aged  trees.  According  to  local  tradition,  this  was  one  of 
the  sacred  groves  of  the  ancient  Germans,  and  it  was  here 
that  the  Roman  captives  were  slain  in  sacrifice  by  the  victori- 
ous warriors  of  Arminius. 

Never  was  victory  more  decisive,  never  was  the  liberation 
of  an  oppressed  people  more  instantaneous  and  complete. 
Throughout  Germany  the  Roman  garrisons  were  assailed  and 


9a.d.]  ARMINIUS  135 

cut  off ;  and  within  a  few  weeks  after  Varus  had  fallen,  the 
German  soil  was  freed  from  the  foot  of  an  invader. 

At  Rome,  the  tidings  of  the  battle  were  received  with  an 
agony  of  terror,  the  descriptions  of  which  we  should  deem 
exaggerated  did  they  not  come  from  Roman  historians  them- 
selves. These  passages  in  the  Roman  writers  not  only  tell 
emphatically  how  great  was  the  awe  which  the  Romans  felt 
of  the  prowess  of  the  Germans,  if  their  various  tribes  could 
be  brought  to  reunite  for  a  common  purpose,3  but  also  they 
reveal  how  weakened  and  debased  the  population  of  Italy  had 
become.  Dion  Cassius  says  :  "  Then  Augustus,  when  he  heard 
the  calamity  of  Varus,  rent  his  garments,  and  was  in  great 
affliction  for  the  troops  he  had  lost,  and  for  terror  respecting 
the  Germans  and  the  Gauls.  And  his  chief  alarm  was,  that 
he  expected  them  to  push  on  against  Italy  and  Rome :  and 
there  remained  no  Roman  youth  fit  for  military  duty,  that 
were  worth  speaking  of,  and  the  allied  populations  that  were 
at  all  serviceable  had  been  wasted  away.  Yet  he  prepared  for 
the  emergency  as  well  as  his  means  allowed ;  and  when  none 
of  the  citizens  of  military  age  were  willing  to  enlist  he  made 
them  cast  lots,  and  punished  by  confiscation  of  goods  and  dis- 
franchisement every  fifth  man  among  those  under  thirty-five, 
and  every  tenth  man  of  those  above  that  age.  At  last,  when 
he  found  that  not  even  thus  could  he  make  many  come  for- 
ward, he  put  some  of  them  to  death.  So  he  made  a  con- 
scription of  discharged  veterans  and  emancipated  slaves,  and, 
collecting  as  large  a  force  as  he  could,  sent  it,  under  Tiberius, 
with  all  speed  into  Germany." 

Dion  mentions  also  a  number  of  terrific  portents  that  were 
believed  to  have  occurred  at  the  time ;  and  the  narration  of 
which  is  not  immaterial,  as  it  shows  the  state  of  the  public 
mind,  when  such  things  were  so  believed  in  and  so  inter- 
preted. The  summits  of  the  Alps  were  said  to  have  fallen, 
and  three  columns  of  fire  to  have  blazed  up  from  them.  In 
the  Campus  Martius,  the  temple  of  the  War-god,  from  whom 
the  founder  of  Rome  had  sprung,  was  struck  by  a  thunder- 
bolt. The  nightly  heavens  glowed  several  times,  as  if  on  fire. 
Many  comets  blazed  forth  together ;  and  fiery  meteors,  shaped 
like  spears,  had  shot  from  the  northern  quarter  of  the  sky 
down  into  the  Roman  camps.     It  was  said,  too,  that  a  statue 


136  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [9  a.d. 

of  Victory,  which  had  stood  at  a  place  on  the  frontier,  point- 
ing the  way  towards  Germany,  had  of  its  own  accord  turned 
round,  and  now  pointed  to  Italy.  These  and  other  prodigies 
were  believed  by  the  multitude  to  accompany  the  slaughter  of 
Varus's  legions,  and  to  manifest  the  anger  of  the  gods  against 
Rome.  Augustus  himself  was  not  free  from  superstition ;  but 
on  this  occasion  no  supernatural  terrors  were  needed  to  increase 
the  alarm  and  grief  that  he  felt ;  and  which  made  him,  even 
for  months  after  the  news  of  the  battle  had  arrived,  often 
beat  his  head  against  the  wall,  and  exclaim,  "  Quintilius 
Varus,  give  me  back  my  legions !  "  We  learn  this  from  his 
biographer,  Suetonius  ;  and,  indeed,  every  ancient  writer  who 
alludes  to  the  overthrow  of  Varus  attests  the  importance  of 
the  blow  against  the  Roman  power,  and  the  bitterness  with 
which  it  was  felt. 

The  Germans  did  not  pursue  their  victory  beyond  their  own 
territory.  But  that  victory  secured  at  once  and  forever  the 
independence  of  the  Teutonic  race.  Rome  sent,  indeed,  her 
legions  again  into  Germany,  to  parade  a  temporary  superior- 
ity ;  but  all  hopes  of  permanent  conquest  were  abandoned  by 
Augustus  and  his  successors. 

The  blow  which  Arminius  had  struck  never  was  forgotten. 
Roman  fear  disguised  itself  under  the  specious  title  of  mod- 
eration ;  and  the  Rhine  became  the  acknowledged  boundary 
of  the  two  nations  until  the  fifth  century  of  our  era,  when  the 
Germans  became  the  assailants,  and  carved  with  their  con- 
quering swords  the  provinces  of  Imperial  Rome  into  the  king- 
doms of  modern  Europe. 

ARMINIUS 

I  have  said  above  that  the  great  Cheruscan  is  more  truly 
one  of  our  national  heroes  than  Caractacus  is.  It  may  be 
added  that  an  Englishman  is  entitled  to  claim  a  closer  degree 
of  relationship  with  Arminius  than  can  be  claimed  by  any 
German  of  modern  Germany.  The  proof  of  this  depends  on 
the  proof  of  four  facts :  first,  that  the  Cherusci  were  Old 
Saxons,  or  Saxons  of  the  interior  of  Germany ;  secondly,  that 
the  Anglo-Saxons,  or  Saxons  of  the  coast  of  Germany,  were 
more  closely  akin  than  other  German  tribes  were  to  the  Che- 


9a.d.]  ARMINIUS  137 

ruscan  Saxons ;  thirdly,  that  the  Old  Saxons  were  almost  ex- 
terminated by  Charlemagne  ;  fourthly,  that  the  Anglo-Saxons 
are  our  immediate  ancestors.  The  last  of  these  may  be  as- 
sumed as  an  axiom  in  English  history.  The  proofs  of  the 
other  three  are  partly  philological  and  partly  historical.  I 
have  not  space  to  go  into  them  here,  but  they  will  be  found 
in  the  early  chapters  of  the  great  work  of  Dr.  Robert  Gordon 
Latham  on  the  "  English  Language,"  and  in  the  notes  of  his 
edition  of  the  "  Germania  of  Tacitus."  It  may  be,  however, 
here  remarked  that  the  present  Saxons  of  Germany  are  of  the 
High-Germanic  division  of  the  German  race,  whereas  both 
the  Anglo-Saxon  and  Old  Saxon  were  of  the  Low-Germanic. 

Being  thus  the  nearest  heirs  of  the  glory  of  Arminius,  we 
may  fairly  devote  more  attention  to  his  career  than,  in  such 
a  work  as  the  present,  could  be  allowed  to  any  individual  leader. 
And  it  is  interesting  to  trace  how  far  his  fame  survived  dur- 
ing the  Middle  Ages,  both  among  the  Germans  of  the  Conti- 
nent and  among  ourselves. 

It  seems  probable  that  the  jealousy  with  which  Maraboduus, 
the  king  of  the  Suevi  and  Marcomanni,  regarded  Arminius, 
and  which  ultimately  broke  out  into  open  hostilities  between 
those  German  tribes  and  the  Cherusci,  prevented  Arminius 
from  leading  the  confederate  Germans  to  attack  Italy  after 
his  first  victory.  Perhaps  he  may  have  had  the  rare  modera- 
tion of  being  content  with  the  liberation  of  his  country,  with- 
out seeking  to  retaliate  on  her  former  oppressors.  When 
Tiberius  marched  into  Germany  in  the  year  10,  Arminius  was 
too  cautious  to  attack  him  on  ground  favorable  to  the  legions, 
and  Tiberius  was  too  skilful  to  entangle  his  troops  in  difficult 
parts  of  the  country.  His  march  and  countermarch  were  as 
unresisted  as  they  were  unproductive.  A  few  years  later, 
when  a  dangerous  revolt  of  the  Roman  legions  near  the  fron- 
tier caused  their  generals  to  find  them  active  employment  by 
leading  them  into  the  interior  of  Germany,  we  find  Arminius 
again  energetic  in  his  country's  defense.  The  old  quarrel 
between  him  and  his  father-in-law,  Segestes,  had  broken  out 
afresh.  Segestes  now  called  in  the  aid  of  the  Roman  general, 
Germanicus,  to  whom  he  surrendered  himself ;  and  by  his 
contrivance  his  daughter  Thusnelda,  the  wife  of  Arminius, 
also  came  into  the  hands  of  the  Romans,  being  far  advanced 


138  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [9  a.d. 

in  pregnancy.  She  showed,  as  Tacitus  relates,  more  of  the 
spirit  of  her  husband  than  of  her  father  —  a  spirit  that  could 
not  be  subdued  into  tears  or  supplications.  She  was  sent  to 
Ravenna,  and  there  gave  birth  to  a  son,  whose  life  we  find, 
from  an  allusion  in  Tacitus,  to  have  been  eventful  and  un- 
happy ;  but  the  part  of  the  great  historian's  work  which  nar- 
rated his  fate  has  perished,  and  we  only  know  from  another 
quarter  that  the  son  of  Arminius  was,  at  the  age  of  four  years, 
led  captive  in  a  triumphal  pageant  along  the  streets  of  Rome. 

The  high  spirit  of  Arminius  was  goaded  almost  into  frenzy 
by  these  bereavements.  The  fate  of  his  wife,  thus  torn  from 
him,  and  of  his  babe  doomed  to  bondage  even  before  its  birth, 
inflamed  the  eloquent  invectives  with  which  he  roused  his 
countrymen  against  the  home  traitors,  and  against  their  in- 
vaders, who  thus  made  war  upon  women  and  children.  Ger- 
manicus  had  marched  his  army  to  the  place  where  Varus  had 
perished,  and  had  there  paid  funeral  honors  to  the  ghastly 
relics  of  his  predecessor's  legions  that  he  found  heaped  around 
him.4  Arminius  lured  him  to  advance  a  little  farther  into  the 
country,  and  then  assailed  him,  and  fought  a  battle,  which, 
by  the  Roman  accounts,  was  a  drawn  one.  The  effect  of  it 
was  to  make  Germanicus  resolve  on  retreating  to  the  Rhine. 
He  himself,  with  part  of  his  troops,  embarked  in  some  vessels 
on  the  Ems,  and  returned  by  that  river,  and  then  by  sea ;  but 
part  of  his  forces  were  entrusted  to  a  Roman  general,  named 
Caecina,  to  lead  them  back  by  land  to  the  Rhine.  Arminius 
followed  this  division  on  its  march,  and  fought  several  battles 
with  it,  in  which  he  inflicted  heavy  loss  on  the  Romans,  cap- 
tured the  greater  part  of  their  baggage,  and  would  have  de- 
stroyed them  completely,  had  not  his  skilful  system  of  opera- 
tions been  finally  thwarted  by  the  haste  of  Inguiomerus,  a 
confederate  German  chief,  who  insisted  on  assaulting  the 
Romans  in  their  camp,  instead  of  waiting  till  they  were  en- 
tangled in  the  difficulties  of  the  country  and  assailing  their 
columns  on  the  march. 

In  the  following  year  the  Romans  were  inactive  ;  but  in  the 
year  afterwards  Germanicus  led  a  fresh  invasion.  He  placed 
his  army  on  shipboard,  and  sailed  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ems, 
where  he  disembarked,  and  marched  to  the  Weser,  where  he 
encamped,  probably  in  the  neighborhood  of  Minden.     Armin- 


9A.D.]  ARMINIUS  139 

ius  had  collected  his  army  on  the  other  side  of  the  river ;  and 
a  scene  occurred,  which  is  powerfully  told  by  Tacitus,  and 
which  is  the  subject  of  a  beautiful  poem  by  Praed.  It  has 
been  already  mentioned  that  the  brother  of  Arminius,  like 
himself,  had  been  trained  up,  while  young,  to  serve  in  the 
Roman  armies ;  but,  unlike  Arminius,  he  not  only  refused  to 
quit  the  Roman  service  for  that  of  his  country,  but  fought 
against  his  country  with  the  legions  of  Germanicus.  He  had 
assumed  the  Roman  name  of  Flavius,  and  had  gained  con- 
siderable distinction  in  the  Roman  service,  in  which  he  had 
lost  an  eye  from  a  wound  in  battle.  When  the  Roman  out- 
posts approached  the  river  Weser,  Arminius  called  out  to 
them  from  the  opposite  bank,  and  expressed  a  wish  to  see  his 
brother.  Flavius  stepped  forward,  and  Arminius  ordered  his 
own  followers  to  retire,  and  requested  that  the  archers  should 
be  removed  from  the  Roman  bank  of  the  river.  This  was 
done :  and  the  brothers,  who  apparently  had  not  seen  each 
other  for  some  years,  began  a  conversation  from  the  opposite 
sides  of  the  stream,  in  which  Arminius  questioned  his  brother 
respecting  the  loss  of  his  eye,  and  what  battle  it  had  been  lost 
in,  and  what  reward  he  had  received  for  his  wound.  Flavius 
told  him  how  the  eye  was  destroyed,  and  mentioned  the 
increased  pay  that  he  had  on  account  of  its  loss,  and  showed 
the  collar  and  other  military  decorations  that  had  been  given 
him.  Arminius  mocked  at  these  as  badges  of  slavery ;  and 
then  each  began  to  try  to  win  the  other  over — Flavius  boast- 
ing the  power  of  Rome,  and  her  generosity  to  the  submissive  ; 
Arminius  appealing  to  him  in  the  name  of  their  country's 
gods,  of  the  mother  that  had  borne  them,  and  by  the  holy 
names  of  fatherland  and  freedom,  not  to  prefer  being  the 
betrayer  to  being  the  champion  of  his  country.  They  soon 
proceeded  to  mutual  taunts  and  menaces,  and  Flavius  called 
aloud  for  his  horse  and  his  arms,  that  he  might  dash  across 
the  river  and  attack  his  brother ;  nor  would  he  have  been 
checked  from  doing  so,  had  not  the  Roman  general,  Stertinius, 
run  up  to  him,  and  forcibly  detained  him.  Arminius  stood  on 
the  other  bank,  threatening  the  renegade,  and  defying  him  to 
battle. 

I  shall  not  be  thought  to  need  apology  for  quoting  here  the 
stanzas  in  which  Praed  has  described  this  scene  —  a  scene 


140  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [9  a.d. 

among  the  most  affecting,  as  well  as  the  most  striking,  that 
history  supplies.  It  makes  us  reflect  on  the  desolate  position 
of  Arminius,  with  his  wife  and  child  captives  in  the  enemy's 
hands,  and  with  his  brother  a  renegade  in  arms  against  him. 
The  great  liberator  of  our  German  race  stood  there,  with 
every  source  of  human  happiness  denied  him,  except  the 
consciousness  of  doing  his  duty  to  his  country. 

"  Back,  back !  he  fears  not  foaming  flood 

Who  fears  not  steel-clad  line  : 
No  warrior  thou  of  German  blood, 

No  brother  thou  of  mine. 
Go,  earn  Rome's  chain  to  load  thy  neck, 

Her  gems  to  deck  thy  hilt ; 
And  blazon  honor's  hapless  wreck 

With  all  the  gauds  of  guilt! 

"  But  wouldst  thou  have  me  share  the  prey  ? 

By  all  that  I  have  done  — 
The  Varian  bones  that  day  by  day 

Lie  whitening  in  the  sun, 
The  legion's  trampled  panoply, 

The  eagle's  shattered  wing,  — 
I  would  not  be  for  earth  or  sky 

So  scorned  and  mean  a  thing. 

"  Ho!  call  me  here  the  wizard,  boy, 

Of  dark  and  subtle  skill, 
To  agonize,  but  not  destroy, 

To  curse,  but  not  to  kill. 
When  swords  are  out,  and  shriek  and  shout 

Leave  little  room  for  prayer, 
No  fetter  on  man's  arm  or  heart 

Hangs  half  so  heavy  there. 

"  I  curse  him  by  the  gifts  the  land 

Hath  won  from  him  and  Rome  — 
The  riving  ax,  the  wasting  brand, 

Rent  forest,  blazing  home. 
I  curse  him  by  our  country's  gods, 

The  terrible,  the  dark, 
The  breakers  of  the  Roman  rods, 

The  smiters  of  the  bark. 

"  O  misery,  that  such  a  ban 
On  such  a  brow  should  be! 
Why  comes  he  not  in  battle's  van 
His  country's  chief  to  be?  — 


9  a.d.]  ARMINIUS  141 

To  stand  a  comrade  by  my  side, 

The  sharer  of  my  fame, 
And  worthy  of  a  brother's  pride 

And  of  a  brother's  name? 

"  But  it  is  past!  —  where  heroes  press 

And  cowards  bend  the  knee 
Arminius  is  not  brotherless  ; 

His  brethren  are  the  free. 
They  come  around :  one  hour,  and  light 

Will  fade  from  turf  and  tide, 
Then  onward,  onward  to  the  fight 

With  darkness  for  our  guide. 

"  To-night,  to-night,  when  we  shall  meet 

In  combat  face  to  face, 
Then  only  would  Arminius  greet 

The  renegade's  embrace. 
The  canker  of  Rome's  guilt  shall  be 

Upon  his  dying  name  ; 
And  as  he  lived  in  slavery, 

So  shall  he  fall  in  shame." 

On  the  day  after  the  Romans  had  reached  the  Weser,  Ger- 
manicus  led  his  army  across  that  river,  and  a  partial  encounter 
took  place,  in  which  Arminius  was  successful.  But  on  the 
succeeding  day  a  general  action  was  fought,  in  which  Arminius 
was  severely  wounded,  and  the  German  infantry  routed  with 
heavy  loss.  The  horsemen  of  the  two  armies  encountered 
without  either  party  gaining  the  advantage.  But  the  Roman 
army  remained  master  of  the  ground,  and  claimed  a  complete 
victory.  Germanicus  erected  a  trophy  in  the  field,  with  a 
vaunting  inscription,  that  the  nations  between  the  Rhine  and 
the  Elbe  had  been  thoroughly  conquered  by  his  army.  But 
that  army  speedily  made  a  final  retreat  to  the  left  bank  of  the 
Rhine ;  nor  was  the  effect  of  their  campaign  more  durable 
than  their  trophy.  The  sarcasm  with  which  Tacitus  speaks 
of  certain  other  triumphs  of  Roman  generals  over  Germans 
may  apply  to  the  pageant  which  Germanicus  celebrated  on  his 
return  to  Rome  from  his  command  of  the  Roman  army  of  the 
Rhine.     The  Germans  were  "  triumphati potius  quam  victi." 

After  the  Romans  had  abandoned  their  attempts  on  Ger- 
many, we  find  Arminius  engaged  in  hostilities  with  Maro- 
boduus,  the  king  of  the  Suevi  and  Marcomanni,  who  was 
endeavoring  to  bring  the  other  German  tribes  into  a  state  of 


142  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [9  a.d. 

dependency  on  him.  Arminius  was  at  the  head  of  the  Ger- 
mans who  took  up  arms  against  this  home  invader  of  their 
liberties.  After  some  minor  engagements,  a  pitched  battle 
was  fought  between  the  two  confederacies,  16  a.d.,  in  which 
the  loss  on  each  side  was  equal ;  but  Maroboduus  confessed 
the  ascendency  of  his  antagonist  by  avoiding  a  renewal  of  the 
engagement,  and  by  imploring  the  intervention  of  the  Romans 
in  his  defense.  The  younger  Drusus  then  commanded  the 
Roman  legions  in  the  province  of  Illyricum,  and  by  his  medi- 
ation a  peace  was  concluded  between  Arminius  and  Maro- 
boduus, by  the  terms  of  which  it  is  evident  that  the  latter 
must  have  renounced  his  ambitious  schemes  against  the  free- 
dom of  the  other  German  tribes. 

Arminius  did  not  long  survive  this  second  war  of  independ- 
ence, which  he  successfully  waged  for  his  country.  He  was 
assassinated  in  the  thirty-seventh  year  of  his  age  by  some  of 
his  own  kinsmen,  who  conspired  against  him.  Tacitus  says 
that  this  happened  while  he  was  engaged  in  a  civil  war,  which 
had  been  caused  by  his  attempts  to  make  himself  king  over 
his  countrymen.  It  is  far  more  probable  (as  one  of  the  best 
biographers  of  Arminius  [Dr.  Plate]  has  observed)that  Tacitus 
misunderstood  an  attempt  of  Arminius  to  extend  his  influence 
as  elective  war-chieftain  of  the  Cherusci  and  other  tribes  for 
an  attempt  to  obtain  the  royal  dignity.  When  we  remember 
that  his  father-in-law  and  his  brother  were  renegades,  we  can 
well  understand  that  a  party  among  his  kinsmen  may  have 
been  bitterly  hostile  to  him,  and  have  opposed  his  authority 
with  the  tribe  by  open  violence,  and,  when  that  seemed  in- 
effectual, by  secret  assassination. 

Arminius  left  a  name  which  the  historians  of  the  nation 
against  which  he  combated  so  long  and  so  gloriously  have 
delighted  to  honor.  It  is  from  the  most  indisputable  source, 
from  the  lips  of  enemies,  that  we  know  his  exploits.  His 
countrymen  made  history,  but  did  not  write  it.  But  his  mem- 
ory lived  among  them  in  the  lays  of  their  bards,  who  recorded 

"  The  deeds  he  did,  the  fields  he  won, 
The  freedom  he  restored." 

Tacitus,  many  years  after  the  death  of  Arminius,  says  of  him, 
"Canitur  adhuc  barbaras  apud  gentes."     As  time  passed  on, 


9  a.d.]  ARMINIUS  143 

the  gratitude  of  ancient  Germany  to  her  great  deliverer  grew 
into  adoration,  and  divine  honors  were  paid  for  centuries  to 
Arminius  by  every  tribe  of  the  Low-Germanic  division  of  the 
Teutonic  races.  The  Irmin-sul,  or  the  column  of  Herman,  near 
Eresburg,  the  modern  Stadtberg,  was  the  chosen  object  of 
worship  to  the  descendants  of  the  Cherusci,  the  Old  Saxons, 
and  in  defense  of  which  they  fought  most  desperately  against 
Charlemagne  and  his  Christianized  Franks.  "  Irmin,  in  the 
cloudy  Olympus  of  Teutonic  belief,  appears  as  a  king  and  a 
warrior ;  and  the  pillar,  the  '  Irmin-sul,'  bearing  the  statue, 
and  considered  as  the  symbol  of  the  deity,  was  the  Palladium 
of  the  Saxon  nation,  until  the  temple  of  Eresburg  was  de- 
stroyed by  Charlemagne,  and  the  column  itself  transferred  to 
the  monastery  of  Corbey,  where,  perhaps,  a  portion  of  the 
rude  rock  idol  yet  remains,  covered  by  the  ornaments  of  the 
Gothic  era."     [Palgrave.] 

Traces  of  the  worship  of  Arminius  are  to  be  found  among 
our  Anglo-Saxon  ancestors,  after  their  settlements  in  this 
island.  One  of  the  four  great  highways  was  held  to  be  under 
the  protection  of  the  deity,  and  was  called  the  "  Irmin-street." 
The  name  Arminius  is,  of  course,  the  mere  Latinized  form  of 
"  Herman,"  the  name  by  which  the  hero  and  the  deity  were 
known  by  every  man  of  Low-German  blood,  on  either  side 
of  the  German  Sea.  It  means,  etymologically,  the  "War- 
man,"  the  "  man  of  hosts."  No  other  explanation  of  the  wor- 
ship of  the  "  Irmin-sul,"  and  the  name  of  the  "Irmin-street," 
is  so  satisfactory  as  that  which  connects  them  with  the  deified 
Arminius.  We  know  for  certain  of  the  existence  of  other 
columns  of  an  analogous  character.  Thus,  there  are  the 
Roland-seule  in  North  Germany ;  there  was  a  Thor-seule  in 
Sweden,  and  (what  is  more  important)  there  was  an  Athel- 
stan-seule  in  Saxon  England. 

There  is  at  the  present  moment  a  song  respecting  the  Irmin- 
sul  current  in  the  bishopric  of  Minden,  one  version  of  which 
might  seem  only  to  refer  to  Charlemagne  having  pulled  down 
the  Irmin-sul :  — 

u  Herman,  sla  dermen, 

Sla  pipen,  sla  trummen, 

De  Kaiser  will  kummen, 

Met  hamer  un  stangen. 

Will  Herman  uphangen." 


144  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [9  A.D. 

But  there  is  another  version,  which  probably  is  the  older,  and 
which  clearly  refers  to  the  great  Arminius :  — 

"  Un  Herman  slaug  dermen  ; 
Slaug  pipen,  slaug  trummen  ; 
De  fursten  sind  kammen, 
Met  all  eren-mannen 
Hebt  Varus  uphangen." 

About  ten  centuries  and  a  half  after  the  demolition  of  the 
Irmin-sul,  and  nearly  eighteen  after  the  death  of  Arminius,  the 
modern  Germans  conceived  the  idea  of  rendering  tardy  hom- 
age to  their  great  hero ;  and,  accordingly,  some  eight  or  ten 
years  ago,  a  general  subscription  was  organized  in  Germany 
for  the  purpose  of  erecting,  on  the  Osning,  —  a  conical  moun- 
tain, which  forms  the  highest  summit  of  the  Teutoberger 
Wald,  and  is  eighteen  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea, 
—  a  colossal  bronze  statue  of  Arminius.  The  statue  was  de- 
signed by  Bandel.  The  hero  was  to  stand  uplifting  a  sword 
in  his  right  hand,  and  looking  towards  the  Rhine.  The  height 
of  the  statue  was  to  be  eighty  feet  from  the  base  to  the  point 
of  the  sword,  and  was  to  stand  on  a  circular  Gothic  temple, 
ninety  feet  high,  and  supported  by  oak-trees  as  columns.  The 
mountain,  where  it  was  to  be  erected,  is  wild  and  stern,  and 
overlooks  the  scene  of  the  battle.  It  was  calculated  that  the 
statue  would  be  clearly  visible  at  a  distance  of  sixty  miles. 
The  temple  is  nearly  finished,  and  the  statue  itself  has  been 
cast  at  the  copper-works  at  Lemgo.  But  there,  through  want 
of  funds  to  set  it  up,  it  has  lain  for  some  years,  in  disjointed 
fragments,  exposed  to  the  mutilating  homage  of  relic-seeking 
travelers.  The  idea  of  honoring  a  hero  who  belongs  to  all 
Germany  is  not  one  which  the  present  rulers  of  that  divided 
country  have  any  wish  to  encourage  ;  and  the  statue  may  long 
continue  to  lie  there,  and  present  too  true  a  type  of  the  con- 
dition of  Germany  herself. 

Surely  this  is  an  occasion  in  which  Englishmen  might  well 
prove,  by  acts  as  well  as  words,  that  we  also  rank  Arminius 
among  our  heroes. 

I  have  quoted  the  noble  stanzas  of  one  of  our  modern  Eng- 
lish poets  on  Arminius,  and  I  will  conclude  this  memoir  with 
one  of  the  odes  of  the  great  poet  of  modern  Germany,  Klop- 
stock,  on   the  victory  to  which  we  owe  our   freedom,  and 


9A.D.]  ARMINIUS  145 

Arminius  mainly  owes  his  fame.  Klopstock  calls  it  the 
"Battle  of  Winfield."  The  epithet  of  "Sister  of  Cannae" 
shows  that  Klopstock  followed  some  chronologers,  according 
to  whom  Varus  was  defeated  on  the  anniversary  of  the  day  on 
which  Paulus  and  Varro  were  defeated  by  Hannibal. 

"  Sister  of  Cannae  ! 5  Winfield's6  fight  ! 
We  saw  thee  with  thy  streaming  bloody  hair, 
With  fiery  eye,  bright  with  the  world's  despair, 
Sweep  by  WalhahVs  bards  from  out  our  sight. 

"  Herrman  outspake  — '  Now  Victory  or  Death  ! 
The  Romans,  .  .   .  '  Victory  ! ' 
And  onward  rushed  their  eagles  with  the  cry. 

—  So  ended  the  first  day.       9 

"  '  Victory  or  Death  ! '  began 
Then,  first,  the  Roman  chief;  and  Herrman  spake 
Not,  but  home  struck  :  the  eagles  fluttered  —  brake. 

—  So  sped  the  second  day. 

TWO   CHORUSES 

"And  the  third  came.   .   .  .     The  cry  was  ' Flight  or  Death  ! ' 
Flight  left  they  not  for  them  who'd  make  them  slaves  — 
Men  who  stab  children  !  —  flight  for  them  I  ...  no  \  graves  ! 

—  'Twas  their  last  day. 

TWO   BARDS 

"  Yet  spared  they  messengers  :  two  came  to  Rome. 
How  drooped  the  plume!  the  lance  was  left  to  trail 
Down  in  the  dust  behind ;  their  cheek  was  pale  : 
So  came  the  messengers  to  Rome. 

"  High  in  his  hall  the  Imperator  sate  — 
Octavianus  Ccesar  Augustus  sate. 
They  filled  up  wine-cups,  wine-cups  filled  they  up 
For  him  the  highest,  Jove  of  all  their  state. 

"  The  flutes  of  Lydia  hushed  before  their  voice, 
Before  the  messengers  —  the  '  Highest'  sprung  — 
The  god 7  against  the  marble  pillars,  wrung 
By  the  dread  words,  striking  his  brow,  and  thrice 
Cried  he  aloud  in  anguish,  'Varus!  Varus! 
Give  back  my  legions,  Varus ! ' 

"  And  now  the  world-wide  conquerors  shrunk  and  feared 
For  fatherland  and  home 

The  lance  to  raise ;  and  'mongst  those  false  to  Rome 
The  death-lot  rolled,  and  still  they  shrunk  and  feared ; 


146  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [9  a.d. 

'  For  she  her  face  hath  turned, 

The  victor  goddess,'  cried  these  cowards  (for  aye 

Be  it ! )  '  from  Rome  and  Romans,  and  her  day 

Is  done!'      And  still  he  mourned, 

And  cried  aloud  in  anguish,  'Varus!  Varus! 

Give  back  my  legions,  Varus ! ' " 

Notes 

1  I  cannot  forbear  quoting  Macaulay's  beautiful  lines,  where  he  describes 
how  similar  outrages  in  the  early  times  of  Rome  goaded  the  plebeians  to 
rise  against  the  patricians  :  — 

"  Heap  heavier  still  the  fetters  ;  bar  closer  still  the  grate  ; 
Patient  as  sheep  we  yield  us  up  unto  your  cruel  hate. 
But  by  the  shades  beneath  us,  and  by  the  gods  above, 
Add  not  unto  your  cruel  hate  your  still  more  cruel  love ! 

********** 
Then  leave  the  poor  plebeian  his  single  tie  to  life  — 
The  sweet,  sweet  love  of  daughter,  of  sister,  and  of  wife ; 
The  gentle  speech,  the  balm  for  all  that  his  vext  soul  endures ; 
The  kiss  in  which  he  half  forgets  even  such  a  yoke  as  yours. 
Still  let  the  maiden's  beauty  swell  the  father's  breast  with  pride ; 
Still  let  the  bridegroom's  arms  enfold  an  unpolluted  bride. 
Spare  us  the  inexpiable  wrong,  the  unutterable  shame, 
That  turns  the  coward's  heart  to  steel,  the  sluggard's  blood  to  flame ; 
Lest  when  our  latest  hope  is  fled  ye  taste  of  our  despair, 
And  learn  by  proof,  in  some  wild  hour,  how  much  the  wretched  dare." 

2  The  circumstances  of  the  early  part  of  the  battle  which  Arminius  fought 
with  Caecina  six  years  afterwards  evidently  resembled  those  of  his  battle 
with  Varus,  and  the  result  was  very  near  being  the  same :  I  have  therefore 
adopted  part  of  the  description  which  Tacitus  gives  of  the  last-mentioned 
engagement. 

3  It  is  clear  that  the  Romans  followed  the  policy  of  fomenting  dissensions 
and  wars  of  the  Germans  among  themselves. 

4  In  the  Museum  of  Rhenish  antiquities  at  Bonn  there  is  a  Roman  sepul- 
chral monument,  the  inscription  on  which  records  that  it  was  erected  to 
the  memory  of  M.  Ccelius,  who  fell  "  Bello  Variano." 

5  The  battle  of  Cannae,  216  B.C.  —Hannibal's  victory  over  the  Romans. 

6  Winfield  — the  probable  site  of  the  "  H err  mans  schlacht:'1 

7  Augustus  was  worshiped  as  a  deity  in  his  lifetime. 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Victory  of   Arminius 

over  Varus  and  the  Battle  of  Chalons 

43  a.d.    The  Romans  commence  the  conquest  of  Britain, 

Claudius  being  then  emperor  of  Rome.     The  population  of 

this  island  was  then  Celtic.     In  about  forty  years  all  the  tribes 


9  a.d.]  ARMINIUS  147 

south  of  the  Clyde  were  subdued,  and  their  land  made  a 
Roman  province. 

58  to  60.  Successful  campaigns  of  the  Roman  general  Cor- 
bula  against  the  Parthians. 

64.    First  persecution  of  the  Christians  at  Rome  under  Nero. 

68  to  70.  Civil  wars  in  the  Roman  world.  The  emperors 
Nero,  Galba,  Otho,  and  Vitellius  cut  off  successively  by  vio- 
lent deaths.     Vespasian  becomes  emperor. 

70.    Jerusalem  destroyed  by  the  Romans  under  Titus. 

83.    Futile  attack  of  Domitian  on  the  Germans. 

86.  Beginning  of  the  wars  between  the  Romans  and  the 
Dacians. 

98  to  117.  Trajan  emperor  of  Rome.  Under  him  the  em- 
pire acquires  its  greatest  territorial  extent  by  his  conquests 
in  Dacia  and  in  the  East.  His  successor,  Hadrian,  abandons 
the  provinces  beyond  the  Euphrates,  which  Trajan  had  con- 
quered. 

138  to  180.    Era  of  the  Antonines. 

167  to  176.  A  long  and  desperate  war  between  Rome  and 
a  great  confederacy  of  the  German  nations.  Marcus  Anto- 
ninus at  last  succeeds  in  repelling  them. 

192  to  197.  Civil  wars  throughout  the  Roman  world.  Sev- 
erus  becomes  emperor.  He  relaxes  the  discipline  of  the 
soldiers.  After  his  death  in  211,  the  series  of  military  insur- 
rections, civil  wars,  and  murders  of  emperors  recommences. 

226.  Artaxerxes  (Ardisheer)  overthrows  the  Parthian  and 
restores  the  Persian  kingdom  in  Asia.  He  attacks  the  Roman 
possessions  in  the  East. 

250.  The  Goths  invade  the  Roman  provinces.  The  emperor 
Decius  is  defeated  and  slain  by  them. 

253  to  260.  The  Franks  and  Alemanni  invade  Gaul,  Spain, 
and  Africa.  The  Goths  attack  Asia  Minor  and  Greece. 
The  Persians  conquer  Armenia.  Their  king,  Sapor,  defeats 
the  Roman  emperor  Valerian,  and  takes  him  prisoner.  Gen- 
eral distress  of  the  Roman  empire. 

268  to  283.  The  emperors  Claudius,  Aurelian,  Tacitus, 
Probus,  and  Carus  defeat  the  various  enemies  of  Rome,  and 
restore  order  in  the  Roman  state. 

285.  Diocletian  divides  and  reorganizes  the  Roman  empire. 
After  his  abdication  in  305  a  fresh  series  of  civil  wars  and 


148  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [9  a.d. 

confusion  ensues.  Constantine,  the  first  Christian  emperor, 
reunites  the  empire  in  324. 

330.  Constantine  makes  Constantinople  the  seat  of  empire 
instead  of  Rome. 

363.  The  emperor  Julian  is  killed  in  action  against  the 
Persians. 

364  to  375.  The  empire  is  again  divided,  Valentinian  being 
emperor  of  the  West,  and  Valens  of  the  East.  Valentinian 
repulses  the  Alemanni,  and  other  German  invaders  from  Gaul. 
Splendor  of  the  Gothic  kingdom  under  Hermanric,  north  of 
the  Danube. 

375  to  395.  The  Huns  attack  the  Goths,  who  implore  the 
protection  of  the  Roman  emperor  of  the  East.  The  Goths 
are  allowed  to  pass  the  Danube,  and  to  settle  in  the  Roman 
provinces.  A  war  soon  breaks  out  between  them  and  the 
Romans,  and  the  emperor  Valens  and  his  army  are  destroyed 
by  them.  They  ravage  the  Roman  territories.  The  emperor 
Theodosius  reduces  them  to  submission.  They  retain  settle- 
ments in  Thrace  and  Asia  Minor. 

395.  Final  division  of  the  Roman  empire  between  Arcadius 
and  Honorius,  the  two  sons  of  Theodosius.  The  Goths  re- 
volt, and  under  Alaric  attack  various  parts  of  both  the  Roman 
empires. 

410.    Alaric  takes  the  city  of  Rome. 

412.  The  Goths  march  into  Gaul,  and  in  414  into  Spain, 
which  had  been  already  invaded  by  hosts  of  Vandals,  Suevi, 
Alani,  and  other  Germanic  nations.  Britain  is  formally  aban- 
doned by  the  Roman  emperor  of  the  West. 

428.  Genseric,  king  of  the  Vandals,  conquers  the  Roman 
province  of  North  Africa. 

441.    The  Huns  attack  the  Eastern  empire. 


45i]  BATTLE   OF   CHALONS  149 


CHAPTER   VI 

The  Battle  of  Chalons,  451 

"  The  discomfiture  of  the  mighty  attempt  of  Attila  to  found  a  new  anti- 
Christian  dynasty  upon  the  wreck  of  the  temporal  power  of  Rome,  at  the 
end  of  the  term  of  twelve  hundred  years,  to  which  its  duration  had  been 
limited  by  the  forebodings  of  the  heathen." —  Herbert. 

ABROAD  expanse  of  plains,  the  Campi  Catalaunici  of 
the  ancients,  spreads  far  and  wide  around  the  city  of 
Chalons,  in  the  northeast  of  France.  The  long  rows 
of  poplars  through  which  the  river  Marne  winds  its  way, 
and  a  few  thinly  scattered  villages,  are  almost  the  only 
objects  that  vary  the  monotonous  aspect  of  the  greater  part 
of  this  region.  But  about  five  miles  from  Chalons,  near  the 
little  hamlets  of  Chape  and  Cuperly,  the  ground  is  indented 
and  heaped  up  in  ranges  of  grassy  mounds  and  trenches, 
which  attest  the  work  of  man's  hand  in  ages  past ;  and  which, 
to  the  practised  eye,  demonstrate  that  this  quiet  spot  has  once 
been  the  fortified  position  of  a  huge  military  post. 

Local  tradition  gives  to  these  ancient  earthworks  the  name 
of  Attila's  Camp.  Nor  is  there  any  reason  to  question  the 
correctness  of  the  title,  or  to  doubt  that  behind  these  very 
ramparts  it  was  that,  1400  years  ago,  the  most  powerful 
heathen  king  that  ever  ruled  in  Europe  mustered  the  rem- 
nants of  his  vast  army,  which  had  striven  on  these  plains 
against  the  Christian  soldiery  of  Toulouse  and  Rome.  Here 
it  was  that  Attila  prepared  to  resist  to  the  death  his  victors 
in  the  field  ;  and  here  he  heaped  up  the  treasures  of  his 
camp  in  one  vast  pile,  which  was  to  be  his  funeral  pyre 
should  his  camp  be  stormed.  It  was  here  that  the  Gothic 
and  Italian  forces  watched,  but  dared  not  assail,  their  enemy 
in  his  despair,  after  that  great  and  terrible  day  of  battle, 
described  by  Herbert,  when 


150  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [451 

"  The  sound 
Of  conflict  was  o'erpast,  the  shout  of  all 
Whom  earth  could  send  from  her  remotest  bounds, 
Heathen  or  faithful ;  —  from  thy  hundred  mouths, 
That  feed  the  Caspian  with  Riphean  snows, 
Huge  Volga!  from  famed  Hypanis,  which  once 
Cradled  the  Hun ;  from  all  the  countless  realms 
Between  Imaus  and  that  utmost  strand 
Where  columns  of  Herculean  rock  confront 
The  blown  Atlantic ;  Roman,  Goth,  and  Hun, 
And  Scythian  strength  of  chivalry,  that  tread 
The  cold  Codanian  shore,  or  what  far  lands 
Inhospitable  drink  Cimmerian  floods, 
Franks,  Saxons,  Suevic,  and  Sarmatian  chiefs, 
And  who  from  green  Armorica  or  Spain 
Flocked  to  the  work  of  death." 

The  victory  which  the  Roman  general  Aetius,  with  his 
Gothic  allies,  had  then  gained  over  the  Huns  was  the  last 
victory  of  Imperial  Rome.  But  among  the  long  Fasti  of  her 
triumphs,  few  can  be  found  that,  for  their  importance  and 
ultimate  benefit  to  mankind,  are  comparable  with  this  expir- 
ing effort  of  her  arms.  It  did  not,  indeed,  open  to  her  any 
new  career  of  conquest ;  it  did  not  consolidate  the  relics  of 
her  power ;  it  did  not  turn  the  rapid  ebb  of  her  fortunes. 
The  mission  of  Imperial  Rome  was,  in  truth,  already  accom- 
plished. She  had  received  and  transmitted  through  her  once 
ample  dominion  the  civilization  of  Greece.  She  had  broken 
up  the  barriers  of  narrow  nationalities  among  the  various 
states  and  tribes  that  dwelt  around  the  coast  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean. She  had  fused  these  and  many  other  races  into  one 
organized  empire,  bound  together  by  a  community  of  laws, 
of  government,  and  institutions.  Under  the  shelter  of  her 
full  power  the  True  Faith  had  arisen  in  the  earth,  and  during 
the  years  of  her  decline  it  had  been  nourished  to  maturity, 
and  had  overspread  all  the  provinces  that  ever  obeyed  her 
sway.  For  no  beneficial  purpose  to  mankind  could  the 
dominion  of  the  seven-hilled  city  have  been  restored  or  pro- 
longed. But  it  was  all-important  to  mankind  what  nations 
should  divide  among  them  Rome's  rich  inheritance  of  empire: 
whether  the  Germanic  and  Gothic  warriors  should  form  states 
and  kingdoms  out  of  the  fragments  of  her  dominions,  and 
become  the  free  members  of  the  commonwealth  of  Christian 


451]  BATTLE   OF   CHALONS  15 1 

Europe ;  or  whether  pagan  savages  from  the  wilds  of  Central 
Asia  should  crush  the  relics  of  classic  civilization,  and  the 
early  institutions  of  the  Christianized  Germans,  in  one  hope- 
less chaos  of  barbaric  conquest.  The  Christian  Visigoths  of 
King  Theodoric  fought  and  triumphed  at  Chalons  side  by 
side  with  the  legions  of  Aetius.  Their  joint  victory  over 
the  Hunnish  host  not  only  rescued  for  a  time  from  destruc- 
tion the  old  age  of  Rome,  but  preserved  for  centuries  of 
power  and  glory  the  Germanic  element  in  the  civilization  of 
modern  Europe. 

In  order  to  estimate  the  full  importance  to  mankind  of  the 
battle  of  Chalons,  we  must  keep  steadily  in  mind  who  and 
what  the  Germans  were,  and  the  important  distinctions  be- 
tween them  and  the  numerous  other  races  that  assailed  the 
Roman  empire ;  and  it  is  to  be  understood  that  the  Gothic 
and  the  Scandinavian  nations  are  included  in  the  German 
race.  Now,  "  in  two  remarkable  traits  the  Germans  differed 
from  the  Sarmatic  as  well  as  from  the  Slavic  nations,  and, 
indeed,  from  all  those  other  races  to  whom  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  gave  the  designation  of  barbarians.  I  allude  to  their 
personal  freedom  and  regards  for  the  rights  of  men ;  secondly, 
to  the  respect  paid  by  them  to  the  female  sex,  and  the  chas- 
tity for  which  the  latter  were  celebrated  among  the  people  of 
the  north.  These  were  the  foundations  of  that  probity  of 
character,  self-respect,  and  purity  of  manners  which  may  be 
traced  among  the  Germans  and  Goths  even  during  pagan 
times,  and  which,  when  their  sentiments  were  enlightened  by 
Christianity,  brought  out  those  splendid  traits  of  character 
which  distinguished  the  age  of  chivalry  and  romance."  What 
the  intermixture  of  the  German  stock  with  the  classic,  at  the 
fall  of  the  Western  empire,  has  done  for  mankind  may  be 
best  felt  by  watching,  with  Arnold,  over  how  large  a  portion 
of  the  earth  the  influence  of  the  German  element  is  now 
extended. 

"  It  affects,  more  or  less,  the  whole  west  of  Europe,  from 
the  head  of  the  Gulf  of  Bothnia  to  the  most  southern  promon- 
tory of  Sicily,  from  the  Oder  and  the  Adriatic  to  the  Hebrides 
and  to  Lisbon.  It  is  true  that  the  language  spoken  over  a 
large  portion  of  this  space  is  not  predominantly  German;  but 
even  in  France,  and  Italy,  and  Spain,  the  influence  of  the 


152  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [451 

Franks,  Burgundians,  Visigoths,  Ostrogoths,  and  Lombards, 
while  it  has  colored  even  the  language,  has  in  blood  and  insti- 
tutions left  its  mark  legibly  and  indelibly.  Germany,  the 
Low  Countries,  Switzerland  for  the  most  part,  Denmark, 
Norway,  and  Sweden,  and  our  own  islands  are  all  in  lan- 
guage, in  blood,  and  in  institutions  German  most  decidedly. 
But  all  South  America  is  peopled  with  Spaniards  and  Portu- 
guese ;  all  North  America,  and  all  Australia,  with  English- 
men. I  say  nothing  of  the  prospects  and  influence  of  the 
German  race  in  Africa  and  in  India :  it  is  enough  to  say  that 
half  of  Europe,  and  all  America  and  Australia,  are  German, 
more  or  less  completely,  in  race,  in  language,  or  in  institu- 
tions, or  in  all."     [Arnold.] 

By  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century,  Germanic  nations  had 
settled  themselves  in  many  of  the  fairest  regions  of  the 
Roman  empire,  had  imposed  their  yoke  on  the  provincials, 
and  had  undergone,  to  a  considerable  extent,  that  moral  con- 
quest which  the  arts  and  refinements  of  the  vanquished  in 
arms  have  so  often  achieved  over  the  rough  victor.  The 
Visigoths  held  the  north  of  Spain  and  Gaul  south  of  the 
Loire.  Franks,  Alemanni,  Alans,  and  Burgundians  had  estab- 
lished themselves  in  other  Gallic  provinces,  and  the  Suevi 
were  masters  of  a  large  southern  portion  of  the  Spanish 
peninsula.  A  king  of  the  Vandals  reigned  in  North  Africa, 
and  the  Ostrogoths  had  firmly  planted  themselves  in  the 
provinces  north  of  Italy.  Of  these  powers  and  principalities, 
that  of  the  Visigoths,  under  their  king  Theodoric,  son  of 
Alaric,  was  by  far  the  first  in  power  and  in  civilization. 

The  pressure  of  the  Huns  upon  Europe  had  first  been  felt 
in  the  fourth  century  of  our  era.  They  had  long  been  formi- 
dable to  the  Chinese  empire;  but  the  ascendency  in  arms 
which  another  nomadic  tribe  of  Central  Asia,  the  Sienpi, 
gained  over  them,  drove  the  Huns  from  their  Chinese  con- 
quests westward ;  and  this  movement  once  being  communi- 
cated to  the  whole  chain  of  barbaric  nations  that  dwelt 
northward  of  the  Black  Sea  and  the  Roman  empire,  tribe 
after  tribe  of  savage  warriors  broke  in  upon  the  barriers  of 
civilized  Europe,  "velut  unda  supervenit  undam."  The  Huns 
crossed  the  Tanais  into  Europe  in  375,  and  rapidly  reduced 
to  subjection  the  Alans,  the  Ostrogoths,  and  other  tribes  that 


45i]  BATTLE   OF   CHALONS  153 

were  then  dwelling  along  the  course  of  the  Danube.  The 
armies  of  the  Roman  emperor  that  tried  to  check  their  prog- 
ress were  cut  to  pieces  by  them ;  and  Pannonia  and  other 
provinces  south  of  the  Danube  were  speedily  occupied  by  the 
victorious  cavalry  of  these  new  invaders.  Not  merely  the 
degenerate  Romans,  but  the  bold  and  hardy  warriors  of  Ger- 
many and  Scandinavia  were  appalled  at  the  numbers,  the 
ferocity,  the  ghastly  appearance,  and  the  lightning-like  rapid- 
ity of  the  Huns.  Strange  and  loathsome  legends  were  coined 
and  credited  which  attributed  their  origin  to  the  union  of 

"  Secret,  black,  and  midnight  hags  " 

with  the  evil  spirits  of  the  wilderness. 

Tribe  after  tribe,  and  city  after  city,  fell  before  them.  Then 
came  a  pause  in  their  career  of  conquest  in  Southwestern  Eu- 
rope, caused  probably  by  dissensions  among  their  chiefs,  and 
also  by  their  arms  being  employed  in  attacks  upon  the  Scandi- 
navian nations.  But  when  Attila  (or  Atzel,  as  he  is  called  in 
the  Hungarian  language)  became  their  ruler,  the  torrent  of 
their  arms  was  directed  with  augmented  terrors  upon  the  west 
and  the  south;  and  their  myriads  marched  beneath  the  guid- 
ance of  one  master-mind  to  the  overthrow  both  of  the  new 
and  the  old  powers  of  the  earth. 

Recent  events  have  thrown  such  a  strong  interest  over 
everything  connected  with  the  Hungarian  name  that  even  the 
terrible  name  of  Attila  now  impresses  us  the  more  vividly 
through  our  sympathizing  admiration  of  the  exploits  of  those 
who  claim  to  be  descended  from  his  warriors,  and  "  ambi- 
tiously insert  the  name  of  Attila  among  their  native  kings." 
The  authenticity  of  this  martial  genealogy  is  denied  by  some 
writers,  and  questioned  by  more.  But  it  is  at  least  certain 
that  the  Magyars  of  Arpad,  who  are  the  immediate  ancestors 
of  the  bulk  of  the  modern  Hungarians,  and  who  conquered 
the  country  which  bears  the  name  of  Hungary  in  889  a.d., 
were  of  the  same  stock  of  mankind  as  were  the  Huns  of 
Attila,  even  if  they  did  not  belong  to  the  same  subdivision  of 
that  stock.  Nor  is  there  any  improbability  in  the  tradition 
that  after  Attila's  death  many  of  his  warriors  remained  in 
Hungary,  and  that  their  descendants  afterwards  joined  the 
Huns  of  Arpad  in  their  career  of  conquest.     It  is  certain  that 


154  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [451 

Attila  made  Hungary  the  seat  of  his  empire.  It  seems  also 
susceptible  of  clear  proof  that  the  territory  was  then  called 
Hungvar,  and  Attila's  soldiers  Hungvari.  Both  the  Huns  of 
Attila  and  those  of  Arpad  came  from  the  family  of  nomadic 
nations  whose  primitive  regions  were  those  vast  wildernesses 
of  High  Asia  which  are  included  between  the  Altaic  and  the 
Himalayan  mountain  chains.  The  inroads  of  these  tribes 
upon  the  lower  regions  of  Asia  and  into  Europe  have  caused 
many  of  the  most  remarkable  revolutions  in  the  history  of 
the  world.  There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  swarms  of 
these  nations  made  their  way  into  distant  parts  of  the  earth, 
at  periods  long  before  the  date  of  the  Scythian  invasion  of 
Asia,  which  is  the  earliest  inroad  of  the  nomadic  race  that 
history  records.  The  first,  as  far  as  we  can  conjecture  in 
respect  to  the  time  of  their  descent,  were  the  Finnish  and 
Ugrian  tribes,  who  appear  to  have  come  down  from  the  Altaic 
border  of  High  Asia  towards  the  northwest,  in  which  direction 
they  advanced  to  the  Uralian  mountains.  There  they  estab- 
lished themselves ;  and  that  mountain  chain,  with  its  valleys 
and  pasture-lands,  became  to  them  a  new  country,  whence 
they  sent  out  colonies  on  every  side.  But  the  Ugrian  colony 
which  under  Arpad  occupied  Hungary,  and  became  the  an- 
cestors of  the  bulk  of  the  present  Hungarian  nation,  did  not 
quit  their  settlements  on  the  Uralian  mountains  till  a  very  late 
period  —  not  until  four  centuries  after  the  time  when  Attila 
led  from  the  primary  seats  of  the  nomadic  races  in  High  Asia 
the  host  with  which  he  advanced  into  the  heart  of  France. 
That  host  was  Turkish  ;  but  closely  allied  in  origin,  language, 
and  habits  with  the  Finno-Ugrian  settlers  on  the  Ural. 

Attila's  fame  has  not  come  down  to  us  through  the  partial  and 
suspicious  medium  of  chroniclers  and  poets  of  his  own  race. 
It  is  not  from  Hunnish  authorities  that  we  learn  the  extent  of 
his  might :  it  is  from  his  enemies,  from  the  literature  and  the 
legends  of  the  nations  whom  he  afflicted  with  his  arms,  that 
we  draw  the  unquestionable  evidence  of  his  greatness.  Be- 
sides the  express  narratives  of  Byzantine,  Latin,  and  Gothic 
writers,  we  have  the  strongest  proof  of  the  stern  reality  of 
Attila's  conquests  in  the  extent  to  which  he  and  his  Huns 
have  been  the  themes  of  the  earliest  German  and  Scandina- 
vian  lays.     Wild   as  many  of  these  legends  are,  they  bear 


4Si]  BATTLE   OF   CHALONS  155 

concurrent  and  certain  testimony  to  the  awe  with  which  the 
memory  of  Attila  was  regarded  by  the  bold  warriors  who 
composed  and  delighted  in  them.  Attila's  exploits,  and  the 
wonders  of  his  unearthly  steed  and  magic  sword,  repeatedly 
occur  in  the  sagas  of  Norway  and  Iceland  ;  and  the  cele- 
brated Nibelungenlied,  the  most  ancient  of  Germanic  poetry, 
is  full  of  them.  There  Etsel,  or  Attila,  is  described  as  the 
wearer  of  twelve  mighty  crowns,  and  as  promising  to  his  bride 
the  lands  of  thirty  kings,  whom  his  irresistible  sword  has  sub- 
dued. He  is,  in  fact,  the  hero  of  the  latter  part  of  this  re- 
markable poem ;  and  it  is  at  his  capital  city,  Etselenburgh, 
which  evidently  corresponds  to  the  modern  Buda,  that  much 
of  its  action  takes  place. 

When  we  turn  from  the  legendary  to  the  historic  Attila,  we 
see  clearly  that  he  was  not  one  of  the  vulgar  herd  of  barbaric 
conquerors.  Consummate  military  skill  may  be  traced  in  his 
campaigns  ;  and  he  relied  far  less  on  the  brute  force  of  armies 
for  the  aggrandizement  of  his  empire  than  on  the  unbounded 
influence  over  the  affections  of  friends  and  the  fears  of  foes 
which  his  genius  enabled  him  to  acquire.  Austerely  sober  in 
his  private  life  ;  severely  just  on  the  judgment-seat ;  conspicu- 
ous among  a  nation  of  warriors  for  hardihood,  strength,  and 
skill  in  every  martial  exercise  ;  grave  and  deliberate  in  coun- 
sel, but  rapid  and  remorseless  in  execution  —  he  gave  safety 
and  security  to  all  who  were  under  his  dominion,  while  he 
waged  a  warfare  of  extermination  against  all  who  opposed  or 
sought  to  escape  from  it.  He  watched  the  national  passions, 
the  prejudices,  the  creeds,  and  the  superstitions  of  the  varied 
nations  over  which  he  ruled  and  of  those  which  he  sought  to 
reduce  beneath  his  sway :  all  these  feelings  he  had  the  skill 
to  turn  to  his  own  account.  His  own  warriors  believed  him 
to  be  the  inspired  favorite  of  their  deities,  and  followed  him 
with  fanatic  zeal.  His  enemies  looked  on  him  as  the  pre- 
appointed minister  of  Heaven's  wrath  against  themselves ; 
and,  though  they  believed  not  in  his  creed,  their  own  made 
them  tremble  before  him. 

In  one  of  his  early  campaigns  he  appeared  before  his  troops 
with  an  ancient  iron  sword  in  his  grasp,  which  he  told  them 
was  the  god  of  war  whom  their  ancestors  had  worshiped.  It 
is  certain  that  the  nomadic  tribes  of  Northern  Asia,  whom 


156  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [451 

Herodotus  described  under  the  name  of  Scythians,  from  the 
earliest  times  worshiped  as  their  god  a  bare  sword.  That 
sword-god  was  supposed,  in  Attila's  time,  to  have  disappeared 
from  earth ;  but  the  Hunnish  king  now  claimed  to  have  re- 
ceived it  by  special  revelation.  It  was  said  that  a  herdsman, 
who  was  tracking  in  the  desert  a  wounded  heifer  by  the  drops 
of  blood,  found  the  mysterious  sword  standing  fixed  in  the 
ground,  as  if  it  had  been  darted  down  from  heaven.  The 
herdsman  bore  it  to  Attila,  who  thenceforth  was  believed  by 
the  Huns  to  wield  the  Spirit  of  Death  in  battle ;  and  the 
seers  prophesied  that  that  sword  was  to  destroy  the  world.  A 
Roman  [Priscus]  who  was  on  an  embassy  to  the  Hunnish 
camp  recorded  in  his  memoirs  Attila's  acquisition  of  this 
supernatural  weapon,  and  the  immense  influence  over  the 
minds  of  the  barbaric  tribes  which  its  possession  gave  him. 
In  the  title  which  he  assumed,  we  shall  see  the  skill  with 
which  he  availed  himself  of  the  legends  and  creeds  of 
other  nations  as  well  as  of  his  own.  He  designated  him- 
self "  Attila,  Descendant  of  the  Great  Nimrod.  Nurtured 
in  Engaddi.  By  the  grace  of  God,  King  of  the  Huns,  the 
Goths,  the  Danes,  and  the  Medes.    The  Dread  of  the  World." 

Herbert  states  that  Attila  is  represented  on  an  old  medal- 
lion with  a  teraphim,  or  a  head,  on  his  breast ;  and  the  same 
writer  adds:  "We  know,  from  the  '  Hamartigenea '  of  Pru- 
dentius,  that  Nimrod,  with  a  snaky-haired  head,  was  the  object 
of  adoration  to  the  heretical  followers  of  Marcion ;  and  the 
same  head  was  the  palladium  set  up  by  Antiochus  Epiphanes 
over  the  gates  of  Antioch,  though  it  has  been  called  the  vis- 
age of  Charon.  The  memory  of  Nimrod  was  certainly  re- 
garded with  mystic  veneration  by  many ;  and  by  asserting 
himself  to  be  the  heir  of  that  mighty  hunter  before  the 
Lord,  he  vindicated  to  himself  at  least  the  whole  Babylo- 
nian kingdom. 

"  The  singular  assertion  in  his  style,  that  he  was  nurtured  in 
Engaddi,  where  he  certainly  had  never  been,  will  be  more 
easily  understood  on  reference  to  the  twelfth  chapter  of  the 
Book  of  Revelation,  concerning  the  woman  clothed  with  the 
sun,  who  was  to  bring  forth  in  the  wilderness  — '  where  she 
hath  a  place  prepared  of  God '  —  a  man  child,  who  was  to 
contend  with  the  dragon  having  seven  heads  and  ten  horns, 


45i]  BATTLE   OF   CHALONS  157 

and  rule  all  nations  with  a  rod  of  iron.  This  prophecy  was 
at  that  time  understood  universally  by  the  sincere  Chris- 
tians to  refer  to  the  birth  of  Constantine,  who  was  to  over- 
whelm the  paganism  of  the  city  on  the  seven  hills,  and  it  is 
still  so  explained ;  but  it  is  evident  that  the  heathens  must 
have  looked  on  it  in  a  different  light,  and  have  regarded  it 
as  a  foretelling  of  the  birth  of  that  Great  One  who  should 
master  the  temporal  power  of  Rome.  The  assertion,  there- 
fore, that  he  was  nurtured  in  Engaddi  is  a  claim  to  be  looked 
upon  as  that  man  child  who  was  to  be  brought  forth  in  a  place 
prepared  of  God  in  the  wilderness.  Engaddi  means  a  place 
of  palms  and  vines,  in  the  desert ;  it  was  hard  by  Zoar,  the 
city  of  refuge,  which  was  saved  in  the  vale  of  Siddim,  or 
Demons,  when  the  rest  was  destroyed  by  fire  and  brimstone 
from  the  Lord  in  heaven,  and  might  therefore  be  especially 
called  a  place  prepared  of  God  in  the  wilderness." 

It  is  obvious  enough  why  he  styled  himself  "  By  the  grace 
of  God,  King  of  the  Huns  and  Goths";  and  it  seems  far 
from  difficult  to  see  why  he  added  the  names  of  the  Medes 
and  the  Danes.  His  armies  had  been  engaged  in  warfare 
against  the  Persian  kingdom  of  the  Sassanidae ;  and  it  is  cer- 
tain that  he  meditated  the  attack  and  overthrow  of  the  Medo- 
Persian  power.  Probably  some  of  the  northern  provinces  of 
that  kingdom  had  been  compelled  to  pay  him  tribute ;  and 
this  would  account  for  his  styling  himself  king  of  the  Medes, 
they  being  his  remotest  subjects  to  the  south.  From  a  simi- 
lar cause  he  may  have  called  himself  king  of  the  Danes,  as 
his  power  may  well  have  extended  northwards  as  far  as  the 
nearest  of  the  Scandinavian  nations ;  and  this  mention  of 
Medes  and  Danes  as  his  subjects  would  serve  at  once  to  in- 
dicate the  vast  extent  of  his  dominion.1 

The  extensive  territory  north  of  the  Danube  and  Black  Sea, 
and  eastward  of  Caucasus,  over  which  Attila  ruled,  first  in 
conjunction  with  his  brother  Bleda,  and  afterwards  alone, 
cannot  be  very  accurately  defined ;  but  it  must  have  com- 
prised within  it,  besides  the  Huns,  many  nations  of  Slavic, 
Gothic,  Teutonic,  and  Finnish  origin.  South  also  of  the 
Danube,  the  country  from  the  river  Sau  as  far  as  Novi  in 
Thrace  was  a  Hunnish  province.  Such  was  the  empire  of 
the  Huns  in  445  a.d.  ;    a  memorable  year,  in  which   Attila 


158  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [451 

founded  Buda  on  the  Danube  as  his  capital  city ;  and  rid 
himself  of  his  brother  by  a  crime,  which  seems  to  have  been 
prompted  not  only  by  selfish  ambition,  but  also  by  a  desire  of 
turning  to  his  purpose  the  legends  and  forebodings  which  then 
were  universally  spread  throughout  the  Roman  empire,  and 
must  have  been  well  known  to  the  watchful  and  ruthless  Hun. 
The  year  445  of  our  era  completed  the  twelfth  century  from 
the  foundation  of  Rome,  according  to  the  best  chronologers. 
It  had  always  been  believed  among  the  Romans  that  the 
twelve  vultures  which  were  said  to  have  appeared  to  Romu- 
lus when  he  founded  the  city  signified  the  time  during  which 
the  Roman  power  should  endure.  The  twelve  vultures  de- 
noted twelve  centuries.  This  interpretation  of  the  vision  of 
the  birds  of  destiny  was  current  among  learned  Romans,  even 
when  there  were  yet  many  of  the  twelve  centuries  to  run, 
and  while  the  imperial  city  was  at  the  zenith  of  its  power. 
But  as  the  allotted  time  drew  nearer  and  nearer  to  its  conclu- 
sion, and  as  Rome  grew  weaker  and  weaker  beneath  the 
blows  of  barbaric  invaders,  the  terrible  omen  was  more  and 
more  talked  and  thought  of  ;  and  in  Attila's  time  men  watched 
for  the  momentary  extinction  of  the  Roman  state  with  the 
last  beat  of  the  last  vulture's  wing.  Moreover,  among  the 
numerous  legends  connected  with  the  foundation  of  the  city, 
and  the  fratricidal  death  of  Remus,  there  was  one  most  terri- 
ble one,  which  told  that  Romulus  did  not  put  his  brother  to 
death  in  accident,  or  in  hasty  quarrel,  but  that 

"  He  slew  his  gallant  twin 
With  inexpiable  sin," 

deliberately,  and  in  compliance  with  the  warnings  of  super- 
natural powers.  The  shedding  of  a  brother's  blood  was  be- 
lieved to  have  been  the  price  at  which  the  founder  of  Rome 
had  purchased  from  destiny  her  twelve  centuries  of  existence. 
We  may  imagine,  therefore,  with  what  terror  in  this,  the 
twelve-hundredth  year  after  the  foundation  of  Rome,  the  in- 
habitants of  the  Roman  empire  must  have  heard  the  tidings 
that  the  royal  brethren,  Attila  and  Bleda,  had  founded  a  new 
capital  on  the  Danube,  which  was  designed  to  rule  over  the 
ancient  capital  on  the  Tiber ;  and  that  Attila,  like  Romulus, 
had  consecrated  the  foundation  of  his  new  city  by  murdering 


450  BATTLE  OF  CHALONS  159 

his  brother ;  so  that,  for  the  new  cycle  of  centuries  then  about 
to  commence,  dominion  had  been  bought  from  the  gloomy- 
spirits  of  destiny  in  favor  of  the  Hun  by  a  sacrifice  of  equal 
awe  and  value  with  that  which  had  formerly  obtained  it  for 
the  Romans. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  not  only  the  pagans,  but  also 
the  Christians  of  that  age,  knew  and  believed  in  these  legends 
and  omens,  however  they  might  differ  as  to  the  nature  of 
the  superhuman  agency  by  which  such  mysteries  had  been 
made  known  to  mankind.  And  we  may  observe,  with  Herbert, 
a  modern  learned  dignitary  of  our  church,  how  remarkably  this 
augury  was  fulfilled.  For  "  if  to  the  twelve  centuries  denoted 
by  the  twelve  vultures  that  appeared  to  Romulus  we  add,  for 
the  six  birds  that  appeared  to  Remus,  six  lustra,  or  periods  of 
five  years  each,  by  which  the  Romans  were  wont  to  number 
their  time,  it  brings  us  precisely  to  the  year  476,  in  which  the 
Roman  empire  was  finally  extinguished  by  Odoacer." 

An  attempt  to  assassinate  Attila,  made,  or  supposed  to  have 
been  made,  at  the  instigation  of  Theodosius  the  Younger,  the 
emperor  of  Constantinople,  drew  the  Hunnish  armies,  in  445, 
upon  the  Eastern  empire,  and  delayed  for  a  time  the  destined 
blow  against  Rome.  Probably  a  more  important  cause  of 
delay  was  the  revolt  of  some  of  the  Hunnish  tribes  to  the 
north  of  the  Black  Sea  against  Attila,  which  broke  out  about 
this  period,  and  is  cursorily  mentioned  by  the  Byzantine 
writers.  Attila  quelled  this  revolt ;  and  having  thus  consoli- 
dated his  power,  and  having  punished  the  presumption  of 
the  Eastern  Roman  emperor  by  fearful  ravages  of  his  fairest 
provinces,  Attila,  450  a.d.,  prepared  to  set  his  vast  forces  in 
motion  for  the  conquest  of  Western  Europe.  He  sought  un- 
successfully by  diplomatic  intrigues  to  detach  the  king  of 
the  Visigoths  from  his  alliance  with  Rome,  and  he  resolved 
first  to  crush  the  power  of  Theodoric,  and  then  to  advance 
with  overwhelming  power  to  trample  out  the  last  sparks  of 
the  doomed  Roman  empire. 

A  strong  invitation  from  a  Roman  princess  gave  him  a  pre- 
text for  the  war,  and  threw  an  air  of  chivalric  enterprise  over 
his  invasion.  Honoria,  sister  of  Valentinian  III.,  the  em- 
peror of  the  West,  had  sent  to  Attila  to  offer  him  her  hand, 
and  her  supposed  right  to  share  in  the  imperial  power.     This 


160  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [451 

had  been  discovered  by  the  Romans,  and  Honoria  had  been 
forthwith  closely  imprisoned.  Attila  now  pretended  to  take 
up  arms  in  behalf  of  his  self-promised  bride,  and  proclaimed 
that  he  was  about  to  march  to  Rome  to  redress  Honoria's 
wrongs.  Ambition  and  spite  against  her  brother  must  have 
been  the  sole  motives  that  led  the  lady  to  woo  the  royal 
Hun,  for  Attila's  face  and  person  had  all  the  national  ugli- 
ness of  his  race,  and  the  description  given  of  him  by  a  Byzan- 
tine ambassador  must  have  been  well  known  in  the  imperial 
courts.  Herbert  has  well  versified  the  portrait  drawn  by 
Priscus  of  the  great  enemy  of  both  Byzantium  and  Rome  :  — 

"  Terrific  was  his  semblance,  in  no  mold 
Of  beautiful  proportion  cast ;    his  limbs 
Nothing  exalted,  but  with  sinews  braced 
Of  chalybean  temper,  agile,  lithe, 
And  swifter  than  the  roe ;    his  ample  chest 
Was  overbrowed  by  a  gigantic  head, 
With  eyes  keen,  deeply  sunk,  and  small,  that  gleamed 
Strangely  in  wrath,  as  though  some  spirit  unclean 
Within  that  corporal  tenement  installed 
Looked  from  its  windows,  but  with  tempered  fire 
Beamed  mildly  on  the  unresisting.     Thin 
His  beard  and  hoary ;   his  flat  nostrils  crowned 
A  cicatrized,  swart  visage  :    but  withal 
That  questionable  shape  such  glory  wore 
That  mortals  quailed  beneath  him." 

Two  chiefs  of  the  Franks,  who  were  then  settled  on  the 
Lower  Rhine,  were  at  this  period  engaged  in  a  feud  with 
each  other  ;  and  while  one  of  them  appealed  to  the  Romans 
for  aid,  the  other  invoked  the  assistance  and  protection  of  the 
Huns.  Attila  thus  obtained  an  ally  whose  cooperation  se- 
cured for  him  the  passage  of  the  Rhine  ;  and  it  was  this  cir- 
cumstance which  caused  him  to  take  a  northward  route  from 
Hungary  for  his  attack  upon  Gaul.  The  muster  of  the  Hun- 
nish  hosts  was  swollen  by  warriors  of  every  tribe  that  they 
had  subjugated  ;  nor  is  there  any  reason  to  suspect  the  old 
chroniclers  of  wilful  exaggeration  in  estimating  Attila's  army 
at  seven  hundred  thousand  strong.  Having  crossed  the 
Rhine,  probably  a  little  below  Coblentz,  he  defeated  the  king 
of  the  Burgundians,  who  endeavored  to  bar  his  progress. 
He  then  divided  his  vast  forces  into  two   armies,  —  one  of 


451]  BATTLE   OF   CHALONS  l6l 

which  marched  northwest  upon  Tongres  and  Arras,  and  the 
other  cities  of  that  part  of  France  ;  while  the  main  body, 
under  Attila  himself,  marched  up  the  Moselle,  and  destroyed 
Besangon,  and  other  towns  in  the  country  of  the  Burgundians. 
One  of  the  latest  and  best  biographers  of  Attila  well  observes 
that,  "  having  thus  conquered  the  eastern  part  of  France, 
Attila  prepared  for  an  invasion  of  the  West  Gothic  terri- 
tories beyond  the  Loire.  He  marched  upon  Orleans,  where 
he  intended  to  force  the  passage  of  that  river;  and  only  a 
little  attention  is  requisite  to  enable  us  to  perceive  that  he 
proceeded  on  a  systematic  plan.  He  had  his  right  wing  on 
the  north,  for  the  protection  of  his  Frank  allies  ;  his  left  wing 
on  the  south,  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the  Burgundians 
from  rallying,  and  of  menacing  the  passes  of  the  Alps  from 
Italy  ;  and  he  led  his  center  towards  the  chief  object  of  the 
campaign  —  the  conquest  of  Orleans,  and  an  easy  passage 
into  the  West  Gothic  dominion.  The  whole  plan  is  very  like 
that  of  the  allied  powers  in  1814,  with  this  difference,  that 
their  left  wing  entered  France  through  the  defiles  of  the  Jura, 
in  the  direction  of  Lyons,  and  that  the  military  object  of  the 
campaign  was  the  capture  of  Paris." 

It  was  not  until  the  year  45 1  that  the  Huns  commenced 
the  siege  of  Orleans  ;  and  during  their  campaign  in  Eastern 
Gaul  the  Roman  general  Aetius  had  strenuously  exerted 
himself  in  collecting  and  organizing  such  an  army  as  might, 
when  united  to  the  soldiery  of  the  Visigoths,  be  fit  to  face  the 
Huns  in  the  field.  He  enlisted  every  subject  of  the  Roman 
empire  whom  patriotism,  courage,  or  compulsion  could  col- 
lect beneath  the  standards  ;  and  round  these  troops,  which 
assumed  the  once  proud  title  of  the  legions  of  Rome,  he 
arrayed  the  large  forces  of  barbaric  auxiliaries  whom  pay, 
persuasion,  or  the  general  hate  and  dread  of  the  Huns 
brought  to  the  camp  of  the  last  of  the  Roman  generals. 
King  Theodoric  exerted  himself  with  equal  energy.  Orleans 
resisted  her  besiegers  bravely  as  in  after-times.  The  passage 
of  the  Loire  was  skilfully  defended  against  the  Huns  ;  and 
Aetius  and  Theodoric,  after  much  maneuvering  and  difficulty, 
effected  a  junction  of  their  armies  to  the  south  of  that  im- 
portant river. 

On  the  advance  of  the  allies  upon  Orleans,  Attila  instantly 


1 62  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [451 

broke  up  the  siege  of  that  city,  and  retreated  towards  the 
Marne.  He  did  not  choose  to  risk  a  decisive  battle  with  only 
the  central  corps  of  his  army  against  the  combined  power  of 
his  enemies ;  and  he  therefore  fell  back  upon  his  base  of 
operations ;  calling  in  his  wings  from  Arras  and  Besancon, 
and  concentrating  the  whole  of  the  Hunnish  forces  on  the 
vast  plains  of  Chalons-sur-Marne.  A  glance  at  the  map  will 
show  how  scientifically  this  place  was  chosen  by  the  Hunnish 
general,  as  the  point  for  his  scattered  forces  to  converge 
upon ;  and  the  nature  of  the  ground  was  eminently  favor- 
able for  the  operations  of  cavalry,  the  arm  in  which  Attila's 
strength  peculiarly  lay. 

It  was  during  the  retreat  from  Orleans  that  a  Christian 
hermit  is  reported  to  have  approached  the  Hunnish  king  and 
said  to  him,  "  Thou  art  the  Scourge  of  God  for  the  chastise- 
ment of  Christians."  Attila  instantly  assumed  this  new  title 
of  terror,  which  thenceforth  became  the  appellation  by  which 
he  was  most  widely  and  most  fearfully  known. 

The  confederate  armies  of  Romans  and  Visigoths  at  last 
met  their  great  adversary,  face  to  face,  on  the  ample  battle- 
ground of  the  Chalons  plains.  Aetius  commanded  on  the 
right  of  the  allies ;  King  Theodoric  on  the  left ;  and  Sangi- 
pan,  king  of  the  Alans,  whose  fidelity  was  suspected,  was 
placed  purposely  in  the  center  and  in  the  very  front  of  the 
battle.  Attila  commanded  his  center  in  person,  at  the  head 
of  his  own  countrymen,  while  the  Ostrogoths,  the  Gepidae, 
and  the  other  subject  allies  of  the  Huns  were  drawn  up  on 
the  wings.  Some  maneuvering  appears  to  have  occurred 
before  the  engagement,  in  which  Aetius  had  the  advantage, 
inasmuch  as  he  succeeded  in  occupying  a  sloping  hill  which 
commanded  the  left  flank  of  the  Huns.  Attila  saw  the  impor- 
tance of  the  position  taken  by  Aetius  on  the  high  ground, 
and  commenced  the  battle  by  a  furious  attack  on  this  part  of 
the  Roman  line,  in  which  he  seems  to  have  detached  some  of 
his  best  troops  from  his  center  to  aid  his  left.  The  Romans, 
having  the  advantage  of  the  ground,  repulsed  the  Huns,  and 
while  the  allies  gained  this  advantage  on  their  right,  their  left, 
under  King  Theodoric,  assailed  the  Ostrogoths,  who  formed 
the  right  of  Attila's  army.  The  gallant  king  was  himself 
struck  down  by  a  javelin,  as  he  rode  onward  at  the  head  of 


45i]  BATTLE   OF   CHALONS  163 

his  men,  and  his  own  cavalry  charging  over  him  trampled  him 
to  death  in  the  confusion.  But  the  Visigoths,  infuriated,  not 
dispirited,  by  their  monarch's  fall,  routed  the  enemies  opposed 
to  them,  and  then  wheeled  upon  the  flank  of  the  Hunnish 
center,  which  had  been  engaged  in  a  sanguinary  and  indecisive 
contest  with  the  Alans. 

In  this  peril  Attila  made  his  center  fall  back  upon  his  camp  ; 
and  when  the  shelter  of  its  entrenchments  and  wagons  had 
once  been  gained,  the  Hunnish  archers  repulsed  without 
difficulty  the  charges  of  the  vengeful  Gothic  cavalry.  Aetius 
had  not  pressed  the  advantage  which  he  gained  on  his  side 
of  the  field,  and  when  night  fell  over  the  wild  scene  of  havoc, 
Attila's  left  was  still  unbroken,  but  his  right  had  been  routed, 
and  his  center  forced  back  upon  his  camp. 

Expecting  an  assault  on  the  morrow,  Attila  stationed  his 
best  archers  in  front  of  the  cars  and  wagons,  which  were 
drawn  up  as  a  fortification  along  his  lines,  and  made  every 
preparation  for  a  desperate  resistance.  But  the  "  Scourge  of 
God  "  resolved  that  no  man  should  boast  of  the  honor  of  hav- 
ing either  captured  or  slain  him ;  and  he  caused  to  be  raised 
in  the  center  of  his  encampment  a  huge  pyramid  of  the 
wooden  saddles  of  his  cavalry :  round  it  he  heaped  the  spoils 
and  the  wealth  that  he  had  won ;  on  it  he  stationed  his  wives 
who  had  accompanied  him  in  the  campaign  ;  and  on  the  sum- 
mit he  placed  himself,  ready  to  perish  in  the  flames,  and  balk 
the  victorious  foe  of  their  choicest  booty,  should  they  succeed 
in  storming  his  defenses. 

But  when  the  morning  broke,  and  revealed  the  extent  of 
the  carnage,  with  which  the  plains  were  heaped  for  miles,  the 
successful  allies  saw  also  and  respected  the  resolute  attitude 
of  their  antagonist.  Neither  were  any  measures  taken  to 
blockade  him  in  his  camp,  and  so  to  extort  by  famine  that 
submission  which  it  was  too  plainly  perilous  to  enforce  with 
the  sword.  Attila  was  allowed  to  march  back  the  remnants 
of  his  army  without  molestation,  and  even  with  the  semblance 
of  success. 

It  is  probable  that  the  crafty  Aetius  was  unwilling  to  be 
too  victorious.  He  dreaded  the  glory  which  his  allies,  the 
Visigoths,  had  acquired ;  and  feared  that  Rome  might  find  a 
second  Alaric  in  Prince  Thorismund,  who  had  signalized  him- 


1 64  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [451 

self  in  the  battle,  and  had  been  chosen  on  the  field  to  succeed 
his  father  Theodoric.  He  persuaded  the  young  king  to  return 
at  once  to  his  capital,  and  thus  relieved  himself  at  the  same 
time  of  the  presence  of  a  dangerous  friend  as  well  as  of  a 
formidable,  though  beaten,  foe. 

Attila's  attacks  on  the  Western  empire  were  soon  renewed ; 
but  never  with  such  peril  to  the  civilized  world  as  had  men- 
aced it  before  his  defeat  at  Chalons.  And  on  his  death,  two 
years  after  that  battle,  the  vast  empire  which  his  genius  had 
founded  was  soon  dissevered  by  the  successful  revolts  of  the 
subject  nations.  The  name  of  the  Huns  ceased  for  some 
centuries  to  inspire  terror  in  Western  Europe,  and  their 
ascendency  passed  away  with  the  life  of  the  great  king  by 
whom  it  had  been  so  fearfully  augmented.2 

Notes 

1  In  the  "  Nibelungenlied,"  the  old  poet  who  describes  the  reception  of 
the  heroine  Chrimhild  by  Attila  (Etsel)  says  that  Attila's  dominions  were 
so  vast  that  among  his  subject  warriors  there  were  Russian,  Greek,  Wal- 
lachian,  Polish,  and  even  Danish  knights. 

2  If  I  seem  to  have  given  fewer  of  the  details  of  the  battle  itself  than  its 
importance  would  warrant,  my  excuse  must  be  that  Gibbon  has  enriched 
our  language  with  a  description  of  it  too  long  for  quotation  and  too  splen- 
did for  rivalry.  I  have  not,  however,  taken  altogether  the  same  view  of  it 
that  he  has.  The  notes  to  Mr. Herbert's  poem  of  "Attila"  bring  together 
nearly  all  the  authorities  on  the  subject. 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the   Battle  of  Chalons, 
451,  and  the  Battle  of  Tours,  732 

476.  The  Roman  empire  of  the  West  extinguished  by 
Odoacer. 

481.  Establishment  of  the  French  monarchy  in  Gaul  by 
Clovis. 

455  to  582.  The  Saxons,  Angles,  and  Frisians  conquer  Brit- 
ain, except  the  northern  parts,  and  the  districts  along  the 
west  coast.  The  German  conquerors  found  eight  independ- 
ent kingdoms. 

533  to  568.  The  generals  of  Justinian,  the  emperor  of 
Constantinople,  conquer  Italy  and  North  Africa ;  and  these 
countries  are  for  a  short  time  annexed  to  the  Roman  empire 
of  the  East. 


4Si]  BATTLE   OF   CHALONS  165 

568  to  570.    The  Lombards  conquer  great  part  of  Italy. 

570  to  627.  The  wars  between  the  emperors  of  Constanti- 
nople and  the  kings  of  Persia  are  actively  continued. 

622.  The  Mahometan  era  of  the  Hegira.  Mahomet  is 
driven  from  Mecca,  and  is  received  as  prince  of  Medina. 

629  to  632.    Mahomet  conquers  Arabia. 

632  to  651.  The  Mahometan  Arabs  invade  and  conquer 
Persia. 

632  to  709.  They  attack  the  Roman  empire  of  the  East. 
They  conquer  Syria,  Egypt,  and  Africa. 

709  to  713.  They  cross  the  straits  of  Gibraltar,  and  invade 
and  conquer  Spain. 

"At  the  death  of  Mohammed,  in  632,  his  temporal  and 
religious  sovereignty  embraced  and  was  limited  by  the  Ara- 
bian peninsula.  The  Roman  and  Persian  empires,  engaged 
in  tedious  and  indecisive  hostility  upon  the  rivers  of  Meso- 
potamia and  the  Armenian  mountains,  were  viewed  by  the 
ambitious  fanatics  of  his  creed  as  their  quarry.  In  the  very 
first  year  of  Mohammed's  immediate  successor,  Abubeker, 
each  of  these  mighty  empires  was  invaded.  The  crumbling 
fabric  of  Eastern  despotism  is  never  secured  against  rapid 
and  total  subversion  ;  a  few  victories,  a  few  sieges,  carried 
the  Arabian  arms  from  the  Tigris  to  the  Oxus,  and  overthrew, 
with  the  Sassanian  dynasty,  the  ancient  and  famous  religion 
they  had  professed.  Seven  years  of  active  and  unceasing 
warfare  sufficed  to  subjugate  the  rich  province  of  Syria, 
though  defended  by  numerous  armies  and  fortified  cities;  and 
the  Khalif  Omar  had  scarcely  returned  thanks  for  the  accom- 
plishment of  this  conquest,  when  Amrou,  his  lieutenant,  an- 
nounced to  him  the  entire  reduction  of  Egypt.  After  some 
interval,  the  Saracens  won  their  way  along  the  coast  of  Africa, 
as  far  as  the  Pillars  of  Hercules,  and  a  third  province  was 
irretrievably  torn  from  the  Greek  empire.  These  Western 
conquests  introduced  them  to  fresh  enemies,  and  ushered  in 
more  splendid  successes.  Encouraged  by  the  disunion  of  the 
Visigoths,  and  invited  by  treachery,  Musa,  the  general  of  a 
master  who  sat  beyond  the  opposite  extremity  of  the  Medi- 
terranean Sea,  passed  over  into  Spain,  and  within  about  two 
years  the  name  of  Mohammed  was  invoked  under  the  Pyre- 
nees."    [Hallam.] 


166  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [732 


CHAPTER  VII 

The  Battle  of  Tours,  732 

"  The  events  that  rescued  our  ancestors  of  Britain,  and  our  neighbors  of 
Gaul,  from  the  civil  and  religious  yoke  of  the  Koran.1'  —  Gibbon. 

THE  broad  tract  of  champaign  country  which  intervenes 
between  the  cities  of  Poitiers  and  Tours  is  principally 
composed  of  a  succession  of  rich  pasture-lands,  which 
are  traversed  and  fertilized  by  the  Cher,  the  Creuse,  the 
Vienne,  the  Claine,  the  Indre,  and  other  tributaries  of  the 
river  Loire.  Here  and  there  the  ground  swells  into  pictur- 
esque eminences ;  and  occasionally  a  belt  of  forest  land,  a 
brown  heath,  or  a  clustering  series  of  vineyards,  breaks  the 
monotony  of  the  wide-spread  meadows  ;  but  the  general  char- 
acter of  the  land  is  that  of  a  grassy  plain,  and  it  seems  naturally 
adapted  for  the  evolutions  of  numerous  armies,  especially  of 
those  vast  bodies  of  cavalry  which  principally  decided  the 
fate  of  nations  during  the  centuries  that  followed  the  down- 
fall of  Rome  and  preceded  the  consolidation  of  the  modern 
European  powers. 

This  region  has  been  signalized  by  more  than  one  memora- 
ble conflict;  but  it  is  principally  interesting  to  the  historian 
by  having  been  the  scene  of  the  great  victory  won  by  Charles 
Martel  over  the  Saracens,  732,  which  gave  a  decisive  check 
to  the  career  of  the  Arab  conquest  in  Western  Europe, 
rescued  Christendom  from  Islam,  preserved  the  relics  of 
ancient  and  the  germs  of  modern  civilization,  and  reestab- 
lished the  old  superiority  of  the  Indo-European  over  the 
Semitic  family  of  mankind. 

Sismondi  and  Michelet  have  underrated  the  enduring  inter- 
est of  this  great  appeal  of  battle  between  the  champions  of 
the  Crescent  and  the  Cross.  But,  if  French  writers  have 
slighted  the   exploits   of   their  national  hero,  the  Saracenic 


CHARLES  MAR  TEL. 

Photogravure  from  a  painting  by  Tugnetti. 


732]  BATTLE   OF   TOURS  167 

trophies  of  Charles  Martel  have  had  full  justice  done  to  them 
by  English  and  German  historians.  Gibbon  devotes  several 
pages  of  his  great  work  to  the  narrative  of  the  battle  of 
Tours,  and  to  the  consideration  of  the  consequences  which 
probably  would  have  resulted  if  Abderrahman's  enterprise  had 
not  been  crushed  by  the  Frankish  chief.  Schlegel  speaks  of 
this  "  mighty  victory  "  in  terms  of  fervent  gratitude,  and  tells 
how  "the  arms  of  Charles  Martel  saved  and  delivered  the 
Christian  nations  of  the  West  from  the  deadly  grasp  of  all- 
destroying  Islam "  ;  and  Ranke  points  out,  as  "  one  of  the 
most  important  epochs  in  the  history  of  the  world,  the  com- 
mencement of  the  eighth  century,  when,  on  the  one  side, 
Mahommedanism  threatened  to  overspread  Italy  and  Gaul, 
and,  on  the  other,  the  ancient  idolatry  of  Saxony  and  Fries- 
land  once  more  forced  its  way  across  the  Rhine.  In  this 
peril  of  Christian  institutions,  a  youthful  prince  of  Germanic 
race,  Karl  Martell,  arose  as  their  champion ;  maintained  them 
with  all  the  energy  which  the  necessity  for  self-defense  calls 
forth,  and  finally  extended  them  into  new  regions." 

Arnold  ranks  the  victory  of  Charles  Martel  even  higher 
than  the  victory  of  Arminius,  "  among  those  signal  deliver- 
ances which  have  affected  for  centuries  the  happiness  of  man- 
kind." In  fact,  the  more  we  test  its  importance,  the  higher 
we  shall  be  led  to  estimate  it;  and,  though  the  authentic 
details  which  we  possess  of  its  circumstances  and  its  heroes 
are  but  meager,  we  can  trace  enough  of  its  general  character 
to  make  us  watch  with  deep  interest  this  encounter  between 
the  rival  conquerors  of  the  decaying  Roman  empire.  That 
old  classic  world,  the  history  of  which  occupies  so  large  a 
portion  of  our  early  studies,  lay,  in  the  eighth  century  of  our 
era,  utterly  exanimate  and  overthrown.  On  the  north  the 
German,  on  the  south  the  Arab,  was  rending  away  its  prov- 
inces. At  last  the  spoilers  encountered  one  another,  each 
striving  for  the  full  mastery  of  the  prey.  Their  conflict 
brought  back  upon  the  memory  of  Gibbon  the  old  Homeric 
simile,  where  the  strife  of  Hector  and  Patroclus  over  the  dead 
body  of  Cebriones  is  compared  to  the  combat  of  two  lions 
that,  in  their  hate  and  hunger,  fight  together  on  the  mountain 
tops  over  the  carcass  of  a  slaughtered  stag ;  and  the  reluc- 
tant yielding  of  the  Saracen  power  to  the  superior  might  of 


168  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [732 

the  Northern  warriors  might  not  inaptly  recall  those  other 
lines  of  the  same  book  of  the  Iliad  where  the  downfall  of 
Patroclus  beneath  Hector  is  likened  to  the  forced  yielding 
of  the  panting  and  exhausted  wild  boar  that  had  long  and 
furiously  fought  with  a  superior  beast  of  prey  for  the  posses- 
sion of  the  fountain  among  the  rocks,  at  which  each  burned 
to  drink. 

Although  three  centuries  had  passed  away  since  the  Ger- 
manic conquerors  of  Rome  had  crossed  the  Rhine,  never  to 
repass  that  frontier  stream,  no  settled  system  of  institutions 
or  government,  no  amalgamation  of  the  various  races  into  one 
people,  no  uniformity  of  language  or  habits,  had  been  estab- 
lished in  the  country  at  the  time  when  Charles  Martel  was 
called  on  to  repel  the  menacing  tide  of  Saracenic  invasion 
from  the  south.  Gaul  was  not  yet  France.  In  that,  as  in 
other  provinces  of  the  Roman  empire  of  the  West,  the  do- 
minion of  the  Caesars  had  been  shattered  as  early  as  the 
fifth  century,  and  barbaric  kingdoms  and  principalities  had 
promptly  arisen  on  the  ruins  of  the  Roman  power.  But  few 
of  these  had  any  permanency ;  and  none  of  them  consolidated 
the  rest,  or  any  considerable  number  of  the  rest,  into  one 
coherent  and  organized  civil  and  political  society.  The  great 
bulk  of  the  population  still  consisted  of  the  conquered  pro- 
vincials; that  is  to  say,  of  Romanized  Celts,  of  a  Gallic  race 
which  had  long  been  under  the  dominion  of  the  Caesars,  and 
had  acquired,  together  with  no  slight  infusion  of  Roman 
blood,  the  language,  the  literature,  the  laws,  and  the  civiliza- 
tion of  Latium.  Among  these,  and  dominant  over  them, 
roved  or  dwelt  the  German  victors :  some  retaining  nearly 
all  the  rude  independence  of  their  primitive  national  charac- 
ter ;  others  softened  and  disciplined  by  the  aspect  and  con- 
tact of  the  manners  and  institutions  of  civilized  life.  For  it 
is  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Roman  empire  in  the  West 
was  not  crushed  by  any  sudden  avalanche  of  barbaric  inva- 
sion. The  German  conquerors  came  across  the  Rhine  not  in 
enormous  hosts,  but  in  bands  of  a  few  thousand  warriors  at 
a  time.  The  conquest  of  a  province  was  the  result  of  an  infi- 
nite series  of  partial  local  invasions,  carried  on  by  little  armies 
of  this  description.  The  victorious  warriors  either  retired 
with  their  booty  or  fixed  themselves  in  the  invaded  district. 


732]  BATTLE   OF   TOURS  169 

taking  care  to  keep  sufficiently  concentrated  for  military  pur- 
poses, and  ever  ready  for  some  fresh  foray,  either  against  a 
rival  Teutonic  band,  or  some  hitherto  unassailed  city  of  the 
provincials.  Gradually,  however,  the  conquerors  acquired  a 
desire  for  permanent  landed  possessions.  They  lost  some- 
what of  the  restless  thirst  for  novelty  and  adventure  which 
had  first  made  them  throng  beneath  the  banner  of  the  boldest 
captains  of  their  tribe,  and  leave  their  native  forests  for  a 
roving  military  life  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine.  They 
were  converted  to  the  Christian  faith ;  and  gave  up  with 
their  old  creed  much  of  the  coarse  ferocity  which  must  have 
been  fostered  in  the  spirits  of  the  ancient  warriors  of  the 
North  by  a  mythology  which  promised,  as  the  reward  of  the 
brave  on  earth,  an  eternal  cycle  of  fighting  and  drunkenness 
in  heaven. 

But  although  their  conversion  and  other  civilizing  influ- 
ences operated  powerfully  upon  the  Germans  in  Gaul,  and 
although  the  Franks  (who  were  originally  a  confederation  of 
the  Teutonic  tribes  that  dwelt  between  the  Rhine,  the  Maine, 
and  the  Weser)  established  a  decided  superiority  over  the 
other  conquerors  of  the  province  as  well  as  over  the  con- 
quered provincials,  the  country  long  remained  a  chaos  of 
uncombined  and  shifting  elements.  The  early  princes  of  the 
Merovingian  dynasty  were  generally  occupied  in  wars  against 
other  princes  of  their  house,  occasioned  by  the  frequent  sub- 
divisions of  the  Frank  monarchy ;  and  the  ablest  and  best  of 
them  had  found  all  their  energies  tasked  to  the  utmost  to 
defend  the  barrier  of  the  Rhine  against  the  pagan  Germans, 
who  strove  to  pass  that  river  and  gather  their  share  of  the 
spoils  of  the  empire. 

The  conquests  which  the  Saracens  effected  over  the  south- 
ern and  eastern  provinces  of  Rome  were  far  more  rapid  than 
those  achieved  by  the  Germans  in  the  north ;  and  the  new 
organizations  of  society  which  the  Moslems  introduced  were 
summarily  and  uniformly  enforced.  Exactly  a  century  passed 
between  the  death  of  Mahomet  and  the  date  of  the  battle  of 
Tours.  During  that  century  the  followers  of  the  Prophet 
had  torn  away  half  the  Roman  empire ;  and,  besides  their 
conquests  over  Persia,  the  Saracens  had  overrun  Syria,  Egypt, 
Africa,  and  Spain  in  an  uncheckered  and  apparently  irresisti- 


I  JO  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [732 

ble  career  of  victory.  Nor,  at  the  commencement  of  the 
eighth  century  of  our  era,  was  the  Mahometan  world  divided 
against  itself,  as  it  subsequently  became.  All  these  vast 
regions  obeyed  the  caliph;  throughout  them  all,  from  the 
Pyrenees  to  the  Oxus,  the  name  of  Mahomet  was  invoked  in 
prayer,  and  the  Koran  revered  as  the  book  of  the  law. 

It  was  under  one  of  their  ablest  and  most  renowned  com- 
manders, with  a  veteran  army,  and  with  every  apparent 
advantage  of  time,  place,  and  circumstance,  that  the  Arabs 
made  their  great  effort  at  the  conquest  of  Europe  north  of 
the  Pyrenees.     The  victorious  Moslem  soldiery  in  Spain, 

"  A  countless  multitude ; 
Syrian,  Moor,  Saracen,  Greek  renegade, 
Persian,  and  Copt,  and  Tartar,  in  one  bond 
Of  erring  faith  conjoined  —  strong  in  the  youth 
And  heat  of  zeal  —  a  dreadful  brotherhood," 

were  eager  for  the  plunder  of  more  Christian  cities  and 
shrines,  and  full  of  fanatic  confidence  in  the  invincibility  of 
their  arms. 

"  Nor  were  the  chiefs 
Of  victory  less  assured,  by  long  success 
Elate,  and  proud  of  that  o'erwhelming  strength 
Which  surely,  they  believed,  as  it  had  rolled 
Thus  far  unchecked,  would  roll  victorious  on, 
Till,  like  the  Orient,  the  subjected  West 
Should  bow  in  reverence  at  Mahommed's  name ; 
And  pilgrims  from  remotest  Arctic  shores 
Tread  with  religious  feet  the  burning  sands 
Of  Araby  and  Mecca's  stony  soil." 

—  Southey's  Roderick. 

It  is  not  only  by  the  modern  Christian  poet,  but  by  the  old 
Arabian  chroniclers  also,  that  these  feelings  of  ambition  and 
arrogance  are  attributed  to  the  Moslems,  who  had  overthrown 
the  Visigoth  power  in  Spain.  And  their  eager  expectations 
of  new  wars  were  excited  to  the  utmost  on  the  reappoint- 
ment by  the  caliph  of  Abderrahman  Ibn  Abdillah  Alghafeki 
to  the  government  of  that  country,  729,  which  restored 
them  a  general  who  had  signalized  his  skill  and  prowess  dur- 
ing the  conquests  of  Africa  and  Spain ;  whose  ready  valor 
and  generosity  had  made  him  the  idol  of  the  troops;  who 


732]  BATTLE   OF   TOURS  1 71 

had  already  been  engaged  in  several  expeditions  into  Gaul, 
so  as  to  be  well  acquainted  with  the  national  character  and 
tactics  of  the  Franks ;  and  who  was  known  to  thirst,  like  a 
good  Moslem,  for  revenge  for  the  slaughter  of  some  detach- 
ments of  the  true  believers  which  had  been  cut  off  on  the 
north  of  the  Pyrenees. 

In  addition  to  his  cardinal  military  virtues,  Abderrahman 
is  described  by  the  Arab  writers  as  a  model  of  integrity  and 
justice.  The  first  two  years  of  his  second  administration  in 
Spain  were  occupied  in  severe  reforms  of  the  abuses  which 
under  his  predecessors  had  crept  into  the  system  of  govern- 
ment, and  in  extensive  preparations  for  his  intended  conquest 
of  Gaul.  Besides  the  troops  which  he  collected  from  his  prov- 
ince, he  obtained  from  Africa  a  large  body  of  chosen  Berber 
cavalry,  officered  by  Arabs  of  proved  skill  and  valor ;  and  in 
the  summer  of  732  he  crossed  the  Pyrenees  at  the  head  of 
an  army  which  some  Arab  writers  rate  at  eighty  thousand 
strong,  while  some  of  the  Christian  chroniclers  swell  its  num- 
bers to  many  hundreds  of  thousands  more.  Probably  the  Arab 
account  diminishes,  but  of  the  two  keeps  nearer  to  the  truth. 
It  was  from  this  formidable  host,  after  Eudes,  the  count  of 
Aquitaine,  had  vainly  striven  to  check  it,  after  many  strong 
cities  had  fallen  before  it;  and  half  the  land  been  overrun, 
that  Gaul  and  Christendom  were  at  last  rescued  by  the  strong 
arm  of  Prince  Charles,  who  acquired  a  surname,1  like  that  of 
the  war-god  of  his  forefathers'  creed,  from  the  might  with 
which  he  broke  and  shattered  his  enemies  in  the  battle. 

The  Merovingian  kings  had  sunk  into  absolute  insignifi- 
cance, and  had  become  mere  puppets  of  royalty  before  the 
eighth  century.  Charles  Martel,  like  his  father,  Pepin  Heri- 
stal,  was  duke  of  the  Austrasian  Franks,  the  bravest  and  most 
thoroughly  Germanic  part  of  the  nation ;  and  exercised,  in 
the  name  of  the  titular  king,  what  little  paramount  authority 
the  turbulent  minor  rulers  of  districts  and  towns  could  be 
persuaded  or  compelled  to  acknowledge.  Engaged  with  his 
national  competitors  in  perpetual  conflicts  for  power,  engaged 
also  in  more  serious  struggles  for  safety  against  the  fierce 
tribes  of  the  unconverted  Frisians,  Bavarians,  Saxons,  and 
Thuringians,  who  at  that  epoch  assailed  with  peculiar  feroc- 
ity the  Christianized  Germans  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine, 


172  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [732 

Charles  M artel  added  experienced  skill  to  his  natural  cour- 
age, and  he  had  also  formed  a  militia  of  veterans  among  the 
Franks.  Hallam  has  thrown  out  a  doubt  whether,  in  our 
admiration  of  his  victory  at  Tours,  we  do  not  judge  a  little 
too  much  by  the  event,  and  whether  there  was  not  rashness 
in  his  risking  the  fate  of  France  on  the  result  of  a  general 
battle  with  the  invaders.  But  when  we  remember  that 
Charles  had  no  standing  army,  and  the  independent  spirit  of 
the  Frank  warriors  who  followed  his  standard,  it  seems  most 
probable  that  it  was  not  in  his  power  to  adopt  the  cautious 
policy  of  watching  the  invaders  and  wearing  out  their 
strength  by  delay.  So  dreadful  and  so  wide-spread  were  the 
ravages  of  the  Saracenic  light  cavalry  throughout  Gaul  that 
it  must  have  been  impossible  to  restrain  for  any  length  of 
time  the  indignant  ardor  of  the  Franks.  And,  even  if 
Charles  could  have  persuaded  his  men  to  look  tamely  on 
while  the  Arabs  stormed  more  towns  and  desolated  more  dis- 
tricts, he  could  not  have  kept  an  army  together  when  the 
usual  period  of  a  military  expedition  had  expired.  If,  in- 
deed, the  Arab  account  of  the  disorganization  of  the  Moslem 
forces  be  correct,  the  battle  was  as  well  timed  on  the  part  of 
Charles  as  it  was,  beyond  all  question,  well  fought. 

The  monkish  chroniclers,  from  whom  we  are  obliged  to 
glean  a  narrative  of  this  memorable  campaign,  bear  full 
evidence  to  the  terror  which  the  Saracen  invasion  inspired, 
and  to  the  agony  of  that  great  struggle.  The  Saracens,  say 
they,  and  their  king,  who  was  called  Abdirames,  came  out  of 
Spain,  with  all  their  wives,  and  their  children,  and  their  sub- 
stance, in  such  great  multitudes  that  no  man  could  reckon  or 
estimate  them.  They  brought  with  them  all  their  armor,  and 
whatever  they  had,  as  if  they  were  thenceforth  always  to 
dwell  in  France. 

"  Then  Abderrahman,  seeing  the  land  filled  with  the  mul- 
titude of  his  army,  pierces  through  the  mountains,  tramples 
over  rough  and  level  ground,  plunders  far  into  the  country  of 
the  Franks,  and  smites  all  with  the  sword,  insomuch  that  when 
Eudo  came  to  battle  with  him  at  the  river  Garonne,  and  fled 
before  him,  God  alone  knows  the  number  of  the  slain.  Then 
Abderrahman  pursued  after  Count  Eudo,  and  while  he  strives, 
to  spoil  and  burn  the  holy  shrine  at  Tours,  he  encounters  the 


732]  BATTLE   OF   TOURS  1 73 

chief  of  the  Austrasian  Franks,  Charles,  a  man  of  war  from 
his  youth  up,  to  whom  Eudo  had  sent  warning.  There  for 
nearly  seven  days  they  strive  intensely,  and  at  last  they  set 
themselves  in  battle  array;  and  the  nations  of  the  North, 
standing  firm  as  a  wall,  and  impenetrable  as  a  zone  of  ice, 
utterly  slay  the  Arabs  with  the  edge  of  the  sword." 

The  European  writers  all  concur  in  speaking  of  the  fall  of 
Abderrahman  as  one  of  the  principal  causes  of  the  defeat  of 
the  Arabs ;  who,  according  to  one  writer,  after  finding  that 
their  leader  was  slain,  dispersed  in  the  night,  to  the  agreeable 
surprise  of  the  Christians,  who  expected  the  next  morning  to 
see  them  issue  from  their  tents  and  renew  the  combat.  One 
monkish  chronicler  puts  the  loss  of  the  Arabs  at  375,000  men, 
while  he  says  that  only  1007  Christians  fell  —  a  disparity  of 
loss  which  he  feels  bound  to  account  for  by  a  special  inter- 
position of  Providence.  I  have  translated  above  some  of  the 
most  spirited  passages  of  these  writers  ;  but  it  is  impossible 
to  collect  from  them  anything  like  a  full  or  authentic  descrip- 
tion of  the  great  battle  itself,  or  of  the  operations  which 
preceded  or  followed  it. 

Though,  however,  we  may  have  cause  to  regret  the  meager- 
ness  and  doubtful  character  of  these  narratives,  we  have  the 
great  advantage  of  being  able  to  compare  the  accounts  given 
of  Abderrahman's  expedition  by  the  national  writers  of  each 
side.  This  is  a  benefit  which  the  inquirer  into  antiquity  so 
seldom  can  obtain,  that  the  fact  of  possessing  it,  in  the  in- 
stance of  the  battle  of  Tours,  makes  us  think  the  historical 
testimony  respecting  that  great  event  more  certain  and  satis- 
factory than  is  the  case  in  many  other  instances,  where  we 
possess  abundant  details  respecting  military  exploits,  but 
where  those  details  come  to  us  from  the  annalist  of  one 
nation  only ;  and  where  we  have,  consequently,  no  safeguard 
against  the  exaggerations,  the  distortions,  and  the  fictions 
which  national  vanity  has  so  often  put  forth  in  the  garb  and 
under  the  title  of  history.  The  Arabian  writers  who  recorded 
the  conquests  and  wars  of  their  countrymen  in  Spain  have 
narrated  also  the  expedition  into  Gaul  of  their  great  emir,  and 
his  defeat  and  death  near  Tours  in  battle  with  the  host  of  the 
Franks  under  King  Caldus,  the  name  into  which  they  meta- 
morphose Charles. 


174  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [732 

They  tell  us  how  there  was  war  between  the  count  of  the 
Frankish  frontier  and  the  Moslems,  and  how  the  count  gath- 
ered together  all  his  people,  and  fought  for  a  time  with 
doubtful  success.  "  But,"  say  the  Arabian  chroniclers,  "  Ab- 
derrahman  drove  them  back ;  and  the  men  of  Abderrahman 
were  puffed  up  in  spirit  by  their  repeated  successes,  and  they 
were  full  of  trust  in  the  valor  and  the  practise  in  war  of  their 
emir.  So  the  Moslems  smote  their  enemies,  and  passed  the 
river  Garonne,  and  laid  waste  the  country,  and  took  captives 
without  number.  And  that  army  went  through  all  places  like 
a  desolating  storm.  Prosperity  made  those  warriors  insatia- 
ble. At  the  passage  of  the  river,  Abderrahman  overthrew 
the  count,  and  the  count  retired  into  his  stronghold,  but  the 
Moslems  fought  against  it,  and  entered  it  by  force,  and  slew 
the  count;  for  everything  gave  way  to  their  simitars,  which 
were  the  robbers  of  lives.  All  the  nations  of  the  Franks 
trembled  at  that  terrible  army,  and  they  betook  them  to  their 
king,  Caldus,  and  told  him  of  the  havoc  made  by  the  Moslem 
horsemen,  and  how  they  rode  at  their  will  through  all  the  land 
of  Narbonne,  Toulouse,  and  Bordeaux,  and  they  told  the  king 
of  the  death  of  their  count.  Then  the  king  bade  them  be  of 
good  cheer,  and  offered  to  aid  them.  And  in  the  1 14th  year2 
he  mounted  his  horse,  and  he  took  with  him  a  host  that  could 
not  be  numbered,  and  went  against  the  Moslems.  And  he 
came  upon  them  at  the  great  city  of  Tours.  And  Abderrah- 
man and  other  prudent  cavaliers  saw  the  disorder  of  the  Mos- 
lem troops,  who  were  loaded  with  spoil ;  but  they  did  not 
venture  to  displease  the  soldiers  by  ordering  them  to  abandon 
everything  except  their  arms  and  war-horses.  And  Abder- 
rahman trusted  in  the  valor  of  his  soldiers  and  in  the  good 
fortune  which  had  ever  attended  him.  But,"  the  Arab  writer 
remarks,  "  such  defect  of  discipline  always  is  fatal  to  armies. 
So  Abderrahman  and  his  host  attacked  Tours  to  gain  still 
more  spoil,  and  they  fought  against  it  so  fiercely  that  they 
stormed  the  city  almost  before  the  eyes  of  the  army  that 
came  to  save  it ;  and  the  fury  and  the  cruelty  of  the  Moslems 
towards  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  were  like  the  fury  and 
cruelty  of  raging  tigers.  It  was  manifest,"  adds  the  Arab, 
"  that  God's  chastisement  was  sure  to  follow  such  excesses  ; 
and  Fortune  thereupon  turned  her  back  upon  the  Moslems. 


732]  BATTLE   OF   TOURS  175 

"  Near  the  river  Owar3  the  two  great  hosts  of  the  two  lan- 
guages and  the  two  creeds  were  set  in  array  against  each 
other.  The  hearts  of  Abderrahman,  his  captains,  and  his 
men  were  filled  with  wrath  and  pride,  and  they  were  the  first 
to  begin  the  fight.  The  Moslem  horsemen  dashed  fierce  and 
frequent  forward  against  the  battalions  of  the  Franks,  who 
resisted  manfully,  and  many  fell  dead  on  either  side,  until  the 
going  down  of  the  sun.  Night  parted  the  two  armies ;  but 
in  the  gray  of  the  morning  the  Moslems  returned  to  the  bat- 
tle. Their  cavaliers  had  soon  hewn  their  way  into  the  center 
of  the  Christian  host.  But  many  of  the  Moslems  were  fear- 
ful for  the  safety  of  the  spoil  which  they  had  stored  in  their 
tents,  and  a  false  cry  arose  in  their  ranks  that  some  of  the 
enemy  were  plundering  the  camp ;  whereupon  several  squad- 
rons of  the  Moslem  horsemen  rode  off  to  protect  their  tents. 
But  it  seemed  as  if  they  fled ;  and  all  the  host  was  troubled. 
And  while  Abderrahman  strove  to  check  their  tumult,  and  to 
lead  them  back  to  battle,  the  warriors  of  the  Franks  came 
around  him,  and  he  was  pierced  through  with  many  spears, 
so  that  he  died.  Then  all  the  host  fled  before  the  enemy, 
and  many  died  in  the  flight.  This  deadly  defeat  of  the  Mos- 
lems, and  the  loss  of  the  great  leader  and  good  cavalier  Ab- 
derrahman, took  place  in  the  hundred  and  fifteenth  year." 

It  would  be  difficult  to  expect  from  an  adversary  a  more 
explicit  confession  of  having  been  thoroughly  vanquished 
than  the  Arabs  here  accord  to  the  Europeans.  The  points 
on  which  their  narrative  differs  from  those  of  the  Christians 
—  as  to  how  many  days  the  conflict  lasted,  whether  the  as- 
sailed city  was  actually  rescued  or  not,  and  the  like  —  are  of 
little  moment  compared  with  the  admitted  great  fact  that 
there  was  a  decisive  trial  of  strength  between  Frank  and 
Saracen,  in  which  the  former  conquered.  The  enduring  im- 
portance of  the  battle  of  Tours  in  the  eyes  of  the  Moslems  is 
attested  not  only  by  the  expressions  of  "  the  deadly  battle  " 
and  "the  disgraceful  overthrow,"  which  their  writers  con- 
stantly employ  when  referring  to  it,  but  also  by  the  fact  that 
no  further  serious  attempts  at  conquest  beyond  the  Pyrenees 
were  made  by  the  Saracens.  Charles  Martel,  and  his  son  and 
grandson,  were  left  at  leisure  to  consolidate  and  extend  their 
power.      The  new  Christian   Roman   empire  of   the  West, 


176  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [732 

which  the  genius  of  Charlemagne  founded,  and  throughout 
which  his  iron  will  imposed  peace  on  the  old  anarchy  of 
creeds  and  races,  did  not  indeed  retain  its  integrity  after  its 
great  ruler's  death.  Fresh  troubles  came  over  Europe  ;  but 
Christendom,  though  disunited,  was  safe.  The  progress  of 
civilization  and  the  development  of  the  nationalities  and  gov- 
ernments of  modern  Europe,  from  that  time  forth,  went  for- 
ward in  not  uninterrupted,  but  ultimately  certain,  career. 

Notes 

1  Martel  —  "  The  Hammer."  See  the  Scandinavian  sagas  for  an  account 
of  the  favorite  weapon  of  Thor. 

2  Of  the  Hegira. 

3  Probably  the  Loire. 

Synopsis    of    Events   between   the    Battle    of    Tours, 
732,  and  the  Battle  of  Hastings,  1066 

768  to  814.  Reign  of  Charlemagne.  This  monarch  has 
justly  been  termed  the  principal  regenerator  of  Western 
Europe  after  the  destruction  of  the  Roman  empire.  The 
early  death  of  his  brother,  Carloman,  left  him  sole  master  of 
the  dominions  of  the  Franks,  which,  by  a  succession  of  victo- 
rious wars,  he  enlarged  into  the  new  empire  of  the  West. 
He  conquered  the  Lombards,  and  reestablished  the  pope  at 
Rome,  who,  in  return,  acknowledged  Charles  as  suzerain  of 
Italy.  And  in  the  year  800  Leo  III.,  in  the  name  of  the 
Roman  people,  solemnly  crowned  Charlemagne,  at  Rome,  as 
emperor  of  the  Roman  empire  of  the  West.  In  Spain,  Charle- 
magne ruled  the  country  between  the  Pyrenees  and  the 
Ebro ;  but  his  most  important  conquests  were  effected  on  the 
eastern  side  of  his  original  kingdom,  over  the  Sclavonians  of 
Bohemia,  the  Avars  of  Pannonia,  and  over  the  previously 
uncivilized  German  tribes  who  had  remained  in  their  father- 
land. The  old  Saxons  were  his  most  obstinate  antagonists, 
and  his  wars  with  them  lasted  for  thirty  years.  Under  him 
the  greater  part  of  Germany  was  compulsorily  civilized,  and 
converted  from  Paganism  to  Christianity.  His  empire  ex- 
tended eastward  as  far  as  the  Elbe,  the  Saal,  the  Bohemian 
mountains,  and  a  line  drawn  from  thence  crossing  the  Dan- 
ube above  Vienna,  and  prolonged  to  the  Gulf  of  Istria. 


732]  BATTLE   OF   TOURS  177 

Throughout  this  vast  assemblage  of  provinces  Charlemagne 
established  an  organized  and  firm  government.  But  it  is  not 
as  a  mere  conqueror  that  he  demands  admiration.  "  In  a  life 
restlessly  active,  we  see  him  reforming  the  coinage  and  estab- 
lishing the  legal  divisions  of  money,  gathering  about  him  the 
learned  of  every  country ;  founding  schools  and  collecting 
libraries ;  interfering,  with  the  air  of  a  king,  in  religious  con- 
troversies ;  attempting,  for  the  sake  of  commerce,  the  mag- 
nificent enterprise  of  uniting  the  Rhine  and  the  Danube,  and 
meditating  to  mold  the  discordant  code  of  Roman  and  bar- 
barian laws  into  a  uniform  system."     [Hallam.] 

814  to  888.  Repeated  partitions  of  the  empire  and  civil 
wars  between  Charlemagne's  descendants.  Ultimately  the 
kingdom  of  France  is  finally  separated  from  Germany  and 
Italy.  In  962  Otho  the  Great  of  Germany  revives  the  impe- 
rial dignity. 

827.  Egbert,  king  of  Wessex,  acquires  the  supremacy  over 
the  Anglo-Saxon  kingdoms. 

832.  The  first  Danish  squadron  attacks  part  of  the  English 
coast.  The  Danes,  or  Northmen,  had  begun  their  ravages  in 
France  a  few  years  earlier.  For  two  centuries  Scandinavia 
sends  out  fleet  after  fleet  of  sea-rovers,  who  desolate  all  the 
western  kingdoms  of  Europe,  and  in  many  cases  effect  per- 
manent conquests. 

871  to  900.  Reign  of  Alfred  in  England.  After  a  long 
and  varied  struggle  he  rescues  England  from  the  Danish 
invaders. 

911.  The  French  king  cedes  Neustria  to  Hrolf  the  North- 
man. Hrolf  (or  Duke  Rollo,  as  he  thenceforth  was  termed) 
and  his  army  of  Scandinavian  warriors  become  the  ruling 
class  of  the  population  of  the  province,  which  is  called  after 
them  Normandy. 

1016.  Four  knights  from  Normandy,  who  had  been  on  a 
pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land,  while  returning  through  Italy, 
head  the  people  of  Salerno  in  repelling  an  attack  of  a  band 
of  Saracen  corsairs.  In  the  next  year  many  adventurers 
from  Normandy  settle  in  Italy,  where  they  conquer  Apulia 
(1040),  and  afterwards  (1060)  Sicily. 

1017.  Canute,  king  of  Denmark,  becomes  king  of  England. 
On  the  death  of  the  last  of  his  sons,  in   104 1,  the  Saxon  line 


178  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [732 

is  restored,  and  Edward  the  Confessor  (who  had  been  bred  in 
the  court  of  the  Duke  of  Normandy)  is  called  by  the  English 
to  the  throne  of  this  island,  as  the  representative  of  the  House 
of  Cerdic. 

1035.  Duke  Robert  of  Normandy  dies  on  his  return  from 
a  pilgrimage  to  the  Holy  Land,  and  his  son  William  (after- 
wards the  conqueror  of  England)  succeeds  to  the  dukedom 
of  Normandy. 


WILLIAM  THE  CONQUEROR. 

Photogravure  from  a  drawing  by  Guilleminot. 


I 


io66]  BATTLE   OF  HASTINGS  179 


CHAPTER   VIII 

The  Battle  of  Hastings,  1066 

"Eis  vos  la  Bataille  assemble, 
Dune  encore  est  grant  renome'e." 

—  Roman  de  Rou,  1.  3183. 

ARLETTA'S  pretty  feet  twinkling  in  the  brook  gained 
her  a  duke's  love,  and  gave  us  William  the  Conqueror. 
Had  she  not  thus  fascinated  Duke  Robert  the  Liberal, 
of  Normandy,  Harold  would  not  have  fallen  at  Hastings,  no 
Anglo-Norman  dynasty  could  have  arisen,  no  British  empire. 
The  reflection  is  Sir  Francis  Palgrave's  ;  and  it  is  emphati- 
cally true.  If  any  one  should  write  a  history  of  "  Decisive 
loves  that  have  materially  influenced  the  drama  of  the  world 
in  all  its  subr^quent  scenes,"  the  daughter  of  the  tanner  of 
Falaise  would  deserve  a  conspicuous  place  in  his  pages.  But 
it  is  her  son,  the  victor  of  Hastings,  who  is  now  the  object  of 
our  attention  ;  and  no  one  who  appreciates  the  influence  of 
England  and  her  empire  upon  the  destinies  of  the  world  will 
ever  rank  that  victory  as  one  of  secondary  importance. 

It  is  true  that  in  the  last  century  some  writers  of  eminence 
on  our  history  and  laws  mentioned  the  Norman  Conquest  in 
terms  from  which  it  might  be  supposed  that  the  battle  of 
Hastings  led  to  little  more  than  the  substitution  of  one  royal 
family  for  another  on  the  throne  of  this  country,  and  to  the 
garbling  and  changing  of  some  of  our  laws  through  the  "cun- 
ning of  the  Norman  lawyers."  But,  at  least  since  the 
appearance  of  the  work  of  Augustin  Thierry  on  the  Norman 
Conquest,  these  forensic  fallacies  have  been  exploded.  Thierry 
made  his  readers  keenly  appreciate  the  magnitude  of  that  po- 
litical and  social  catastrophe.  He  depicted  in  vivid  colors  the 
atrocious  cruelties  of  the  conquerors,  and  the  sweeping  and 
enduring  innovations  that  they  wrought,  involving  the  over- 


180  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1066 

throw  of  the  ancient  constitution,  as  well  as  of  the  last  of  the 
Saxon  kings.  In  his  pages  we  see  new  tribunals  and  tenures 
superseding  the  old  ones,  new  divisions  of  race  and  class  in- 
troduced, whole  districts  devastated  to  gratify  the  vengeance 
or  the  caprice  of  the  new  tyrant,  the  greater  part  of  the  lands 
of  the  English  confiscated,  and  divided  among  aliens,  the  very 
name  of  Englishmen  turned  into  a  reproach,  the  English  lan- 
guage rejected  as  servile  and  barbarous,  and  all  the  high 
places  in  Church  and  State  for  upwards  of  a  century  filled 
exclusively  by  men  of  foreign  race. 

No  less  true  than  eloquent  is  Thierry's  summing  up  of  the 
social  effects  of  the  Norman  Conquest  on  the  generation  that 
witnessed  it,  and  on  many  of  their  successors.  He  tells  his 
reader  that  "if  he  would  form  a  just  idea  of  England  con- 
quered by  William  of  Normandy,  he  must  figure  to  himself, 
not  a  mere  change  of  political  rule,  not  the  triumph  of  one 
candidate  over  another  candidate,  of  the  man  of  one  party 
over  the  man  of  another  party  ;  but  the  intrusion  of  one  people 
into  the  bosom  of  another  people,  the  violent  placing  of  one 
society  over  another  society,  which  it  came  to  destroy,  and  the 
scattered  fragments  of  which  it  retained  only  as  personal  prop- 
erty, or  (to  use  the  words  of  an  old  act)  as  '  the  clothing  of 
the  soil ' :  he  must  not  picture  to  himself,  on  the  one  hand, 
William,  a  king  and  a  despot ;  on  the  other,  subjects  of  Will- 
iam's, high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  all  inhabiting  England, 
and  consequently  all  English ;  but  he  must  imagine  two  nations, 
of  one  of  which  William  is  a  member  and  the  chief  —  two 
nations  which  (if  the  term  must  be  used)  were  both  subject  to 
William,  but  as  applied  to  which  the  word  has  quite  different 
senses,  meaning  in  the  one  case  subordinate,  in  the  other  sub- 
jugated. He  must  consider  that  there  are  two  countries,  two 
soils,  included  in  the  same  geographical  circumference  —  that 
of  the  Normans,  rich  and  free  ;  that  of  the  Saxons,  poor  and 
serving,  vexed  by  rent  and  taillage  ;  the  former  full  of  spacious 
mansions  and  walled  and  moated  castles,  the  latter  scattered 
over  with  huts  and  straw  and  ruined  hovels :  that  peopled 
with  the  happy  and  the  idle,  with  men  of  the  army  and  of  the 
court,  with  knights  and  nobles  ;  this  with  men  of  pain  and 
labor,  with  farmers  and  artisans  :  on  the  one  side,  luxury  and 
insolence ;  on  the  other,  misery  and  envy  —  not  the  envy  of 


io66]  BATTLE   OF   HASTINGS  l8l 

the  poor  at  the  sight  of  opulence  they  cannot  reach,  but  the 
envy  of  the  despoiled  when  in  presence  of  the  despoilers." 

Perhaps  the  effect  of  Thierry's  work  has  been  to  cast  into  the 
shade  the  ultimate  good  effects  on  England  of  the  Norman 
Conquest.  Yet  these  are  as  undeniable  as  are  the  miseries 
which  that  conquest  inflicted  on  our  Saxon  ancestors  from  the 
time  of  the  battle  of  Hastings  to  the  time  of  the  signing  of 
the  Great  Charter  at  Runnymede.  The  last  is  the  true  epoch 
of  English  nationality :  it  is  the  epoch  when  Anglo-Norman 
and  Anglo-Saxon  ceased  to  keep  aloof  from  each  other  —  the 
one  in  haughty  scorn,  the  other  in  sullen  abhorrence ;  and 
when  all  the  free  men  of  the  land,  whether  barons,  knights, 
yeomen,  or  burghers,  combined  to  lay  the  foundations  of 
English  freedom. 

Our  Norman  barons  were  the  chiefs  of  that  primary  con- 
stitutional movement;  those  "iron  barons"  whom  Chatham 
has  so  nobly  eulogized.  This  alone  should  make  England  re- 
member her  obligations  to  the  Norman  Conquest,  which  planted 
far  and  wide,  as  a  dominant  class  in  her  land,  a  martial  no- 
bility of  the  bravest  and  most  energetic  race  that  ever  existed. 

It  may  sound  paradoxical,  but  it  is  in  reality  no  exaggera- 
tion to  say,  with  Guizot,  that  England  owes  her  liberties  to 
her  having  been  conquered  by  the  Normans.  It  is  true  that 
the  Saxon  institutions  were  the  primitive  cradle  of  English 
liberty,  but  by  their  own  intrinsic  force  they  could  never  have 
founded  the  enduring  free  English  constitution.  It  was  the 
Conquest  that  infused  into  them  a  new  virtue  ;  and  the  politi- 
cal liberties  of  England  arose  from  the  situation  in  which  the 
Anglo-Saxon  and  the  Anglo-Norman  populations  and  laws 
found  themselves  placed  relatively  to  each  other  in  this  island. 
The  state  of  England  under  her  last  Anglo-Saxon  kings  closely 
resembled  the  state  of  France  under  the  last  Carlovingian 
and  the  first  Capetian  princes.  The  crown  was  feeble,  the 
great  nobles  were  strong  and  turbulent.  And  although  there 
was  more  national  unity  in  Saxon  England  than  in  France ; 
although  the  English  local  free  institutions  had  more  reality 
and  energy  than  was  the  case  with  anything  analogous  to 
them  on  the  Continent  in  the  eleventh  century,  still  the  proba- 
bility is  that  the  Saxon  system  of  polity,  if  left  to  itself,  would 
have  fallen  into  utter  confusion,  out  of  which  would   have 


182  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1066 

arisen  first  an  aristocratic  hierarchy  like  that  which  arose  in 
France,  next  an  absolute  monarchy,  and  finally  a  series  of 
anarchical  revolutions,  such  as  we  now  behold  around  but 
not  among  us. 

The  latest  conquerors  of  this  island  were  also  the  bravest 
and  the  best.  I  do  not  except  even  the  Romans.  And,  in  spite 
of  our  sympathies  with  Harold  and  Hereward,  and  our  abhor- 
rence of  the  founder  of  the  New  Forest,  and  the  desolator  of 
Yorkshire,  we  must  confess  the  superiority  of  the  Normans 
to  the  Anglo-Saxons  and  Anglo-Danes,  whom  they  met  here 
in  1066,  as  well  as  to  the  degenerate  Frank  noblesse  and  the 
crushed  and  servile  Romanesque  provincials  from  whom,  in 
912,  they  had  wrested  the  district  in  the  north  of  Gaul  which 
still  bears  the  name  of  Normandy. 

It  was  not  merely  by  extreme  valor  and  ready  subordina- 
tion or  military  discipline  that  the  Normans  were  preeminent 
among  all  the  conquering  races  of  the  Gothic  stock,  but  also 
by  their  instinctive  faculty  of  appreciating  and  adopting  the 
superior  civilizations  which  they  encountered.  This  Duke 
Rollo  and  his  Scandinavian  warriors  readily  embraced  the 
creed,  the  language,  the  laws,  and  the  arts  which  France,  in 
those  troubled  and  evil  times  with  which  the  Capetian  dynasty 
commenced,  still  inherited  from  imperial  Rome  and  imperial 
Charlemagne.  "  They  adopted  the  customs,  the  duties,  the 
obedience,  that  the  capitularies  of  emperors  and  kings  had 
established ;  but  that  which  they  brought  to  the  application 
of  those  laws  was  the  spirit  of  life,  the  spirit  of  liberty  —  the 
habits  also  of  military  subordination,  and  the  aptness  for  a 
state  politic,  which  could  reconcile  the  security  of  all  with  the 
independence  of  each."  [Sismondi.]  So,  also,  in  all  chival- 
ric  feelings,  in  enthusiastic  religious  zeal,  in  almost  idolatrous 
respect  to  females  of  gentle  birth,  in  generous  fondness  for 
the  nascent  poetry  of  the  time,  in  a  keen  intellectual  relish 
for  subtle  thought  and  disputation,  in  a  taste  for  architectural 
magnificence,  and  all  courtly  refinement  and  pageantry,  the 
Normans  were  the  Paladins  of  the  world.  Their  brilliant 
qualities  were  sullied  by  many  darker  traits  of  pride,  of  mer- 
ciless cruelty,  and  of  brutal  contempt  for  the  industry,  the 
rights,  and  the  feelings  of  all  whom  they  considered  the  lower 
classes  of  mankind. 


io66]  BATTLE   OF   HASTINGS  1 83 

Their  gradual  blending  with  the  Saxons  softened  these 
harsh  and  evil  points  of  their  national  character,  and  in  re- 
turn they  fired  the  duller  Saxon  mass  with  a  new  spirit  of 
animation  and  power.  As  Campbell  boldly  expressed  it, 
"  They  high-mettled  the  blood  of  our  veins.'"  Small  had  been 
the  figure  which  England  made  in  the  world  before  the  com- 
ing over  of  the  Normans ;  and  without  them  she  never  would 
have  emerged  from  insignificance.  The  authority  of  Gibbon 
may  be  taken  as  decisive,  when  he  pronounces  that,  "As- 
suredly England  was  a  gainer  by  the  Conquest."  And  we 
may  proudly  adopt  the  comment  of  the  Frenchman  Rapin, 
who,  writing  of  the  battle  of  Hastings  more  than  a  century 
ago,  speaks  of  the  revolution  effected  by  it  as  "  the  first  step 
by  which  England  has  arrived  to  that  height  of  grandeur  and 
glory  we  behold  it  in  at  present." 

The  interest  of  this  eventful  struggle,  by  which  William  of 
Normandy  became  king  of  England,  is  materially  enhanced 
by  the  high  personal  characters  of  the  competitors  for  our 
crown.  They  ™ere  three  in  number.  One  was  a  foreign 
prince  from  the  North ;  one  was  a  foreign  prince  from  the 
South ;  and  one  was  a  native  hero  of  the  land.  Harald  Har- 
drada,  the  strongest  and  most  chivalric  of  the  kings  of  Nor- 
way, was  the  first;  Duke  William  of  Normandy  was  the 
second ;  and  the  Saxon  Harold,  the  son  of  Earl  Godwin,  was 
the  third.  Never  was  a  nobler  prize  sought  by  nobler  cham- 
pions, or  striven  for  more  gallantly.  The  Saxon  triumphed 
over  the  Norwegian,  and  the  Norman  triumphed  over  the 
Saxon ;  but  Norse  valor  was  never  more  conspicuous  than 
when  Harald  Hardrada  and  his  host  fought  and  fell  at  Stam- 
ford Bridge  ;  nor  did  Saxons  ever  face  their  foes  more  bravely 
than  our  Harold  and  his  men  on  the  fatal  day  of  Hastings. 

During  the  reign  of  King  Edward  the  Confessor  over  this 
land,  the  claims  of  the  Norwegian  king  to  our  crown  were  lit- 
tle thought  of  ;  and  though  Hardrada's  predecessor,  King 
Magnus  of  Norway,  had  on  one  occasion  asserted  that,  by 
virtue  of  a  compact  with  our  former  king,  Hardicanute,  he  was 
entitled  to  the  English  throne,  no  serious  attempt  had  been 
made  to  enforce  his  pretensions.  But  the  rivalry  of  the  Saxon 
Harold  and  the  Norman  William  was  foreseen  and  bewailed 
by  the  Confessor,  who  was  believed  to  have  predicted  on  his 


1 84  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1066 

death-bed  the  calamities  that  were  pending  over  England. 
Duke  William  was  King  Edward's  kinsman.  Harold  was  the 
head  of  the  most  powerful  noble  house,  next  to  the  royal 
blood,  in  England ;  and  personally  he  was  the  bravest  and 
most  popular  chieftain  in  the  land.  King  Edward  was  child- 
less, and  the  nearest  collateral  heir  was  a  puny,  unpromising 
boy.  England  had  suffered  too  severely  during  royal  minori- 
ties to  make  the  accession  of  Edgar  Atheling  desirable ;  and 
long  before  King  Edward's  death,  Earl  Harold  was  the  des- 
tined king  of  the  nation's  choice,  though  the  favor  of  the 
Confessor  was  believed  to  lean  towards  the  Norman  duke. 

A  little  time  before  the  death  of  King  Edward,  Harold  was 
in  Normandy.  The  causes  of  the  voyage  of  the  Saxon  earl 
to  the  Continent  are  doubtful ;  but  the  fact  of  his  having  been, 
in  1065,  at  the  ducal  court,  and  in  the  power  of  his  rival,  is 
indisputable.  William  made  skilful  and  unscrupulous  use  of 
the  opportunity.  Though  Harold  was  treated  with  outward 
courtesy  and  friendship,  he  was  made  fully  aware  that  his  lib- 
erty and  life  depended  on  his  compliance  with  the  duke's 
requests.  William  said  to  him,  in  apparent  confidence  and 
cordiality,  "  When  King  Edward  and  I  once  lived  like  broth- 
ers under  the  same  roof,  he  promised  that  if  ever  he  became 
king  of  England,  he  would  make  me  heir  to  his  throne.  Har- 
old, I  wish  that  thou  wouldst  assist  me  to  realize  this  prom- 
ise." Harold  replied  with  expressions  of  assent ;  and  further 
agreed,  at  William's  request,  to  marry  William's  daughter 
Adela,  and  to  send  over  his  own  sister  to  be  married  to  one  of 
William's  barons.  The  crafty  Norman  was  not  content  with 
this  extorted  promise ;  he  determined  to  bind  Harold  by  a 
more  solemn  pledge,  which,  if  broken,  would  be  a  weight  on 
the  spirit  of  the  gallant  Saxon,  and  a  discouragement  to  others 
from  adopting  his  cause.  Before  a  full  assembly  of  the  Nor- 
man barons,  Harold  was  required  to  do  homage  to  Duke 
William,  as  the  heir  apparent  of  the  English  crown.  Kneel- 
ing down,  Harold  placed  his  hands  between  those  of  the  duke, 
and  repeated  the  solemn  form  by  which  he  acknowledged  the 
duke  as  his  lord,  and  promised  to  him  fealty  and  true  service. 
But  William  exacted  more.  He  had  caused  all  the  bones  and 
relics  of  saints,  that  were  preserved  in  the  Norman  monas- 
teries and  churches,  to  be  collected  into  a  chest,  which  was 


1066]  BATTLE   OF   HASTINGS  1 85 

placed  in  the  council-room,  covered  over  with  a  cloth  of  gold. 
On  the  chest  of  relics,  which  were  thus  concealed,  was  laid  a 
missal.  The  duke  then  solemnly  addressed  his  titular  guest 
and  real  captive,  and  said  to  him,  "  Harold,  I  require  thee, 
before  this  noble  assembly,  to  confirm  by  oath  the  promises 
which  thou  hast  made  me,  to  assist  me  in  obtaining  the  crown 
of  England  after  King  Edward's  death,  to  marry  my  daughter 
Adela,  and  to  send  me  thy  sister,  that  I  may  give  her  in  mar- 
riage to  one  of  my  barons."  Harold,  once  more  taken  by 
surprise,  and  not  able  to  deny  his  former  words,  approached 
the  missal,  and  laid  his  hand  on  it,  not  knowing  that  the  chest 
of  relics  was  beneath.  The  old  Norman  chronicler  Wace, 
who  describes  the  scene  most  minutely,  says,  when  Harold 
placed  his  hand  on  it,  the  hand  trembled  and  the  flesh  quiv- 
ered ;  but  he  swore,  and  promised  upon  his  oath,  to  take  Ele 
[Adela]  to  wife,  and  to  deliver  up  England  to  the  duke,  and 
thereunto  to  do  all  in  his  power,  according  to  his  might  and 
wit,  after  the  death  of  Edward,  if  he  himself  should  live :  so 
help  him  God.  Many  cried,  "  God  grant  it !  "  and  when  Har- 
old rose  from  his  knees  the  duke  made  him  stand  close  to  the 
chest,  and  took  off  the  pall  that  had  covered  it,  and  showed 
Harold  upon  what  holy  relics  he  had  sworn ;  and  Harold  was 
sorely  alarmed  at  the  sight. 

Harold  was  soon  after  this  permitted  to  return  to  England ; 
and,  after  a  short  interval,  during  which  he  distinguished  him- 
self by  the  wisdom  and  humanity  with  which  he  pacified  some 
formidable  tumults  of  the  Anglo-Danes  in  Northumbria,  he 
found  himself  called  on  to  decide  whether  he  would  keep  the 
oath  which  the  Norman  had  obtained  from  him,  or  mount  the 
vacant  throne  of  England  in  compliance  with  the  nation's 
choice.  King  Edward  the  Confessor  died  on  the  5th  of  Janu- 
ary, 1066,  and  on  the  following  day  an  assembly  of  the  thanes 
and  prelates  present  in  London,  and  of  the  citizens  of  the 
metropolis,  declared  that  Harold  should  be  their  king.  It 
was  reported  that  the  dying  Edward  had  nominated  him  as 
his  successor ;  but  the  sense  which  his  countrymen  enter- 
tained of  his  preeminent  merit  was  the  true  foundation  of  his 
title  to  the  crown.  Harold  resolved  to  disregard  the  oath 
which  he  made  in  Normandy,  as  violent  and  void,  and  on  the 
7th  day  of  that  January  he  was   anointed  king  of  England, 


186  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1066 

and  received  from  the  archbishop's  hands  the  golden  crown 
and  scepter  of  England,  and  also  an  ancient  national  symbol, 
a  weighty  battle-ax.  He  had  deep  and  speedy  need  of  this 
significant  part  of  the  insignia  of  Saxon  royalty. 

A  messenger  from  Normandy  soon  arrived  to  remind 
Harold  of  the  oath  which  he  had  sworn  to  the  duke  "  with  his 
mouth,  and  his  hand  upon  good  and  holy  relics."  "It  is 
true,"  replied  the  Saxon  king,  "that  I  took  an  oath  to 
William  ;  but  I  took  it  under  constraint :  I  promised  what  did 
not  belong  to  me  —  what  I  could  not  in  any  way  hold :  my 
royalty  is  not  my  own ;  I  could  not  lay  it  down  against  the 
will  of  the  country,  nor  can  I  against  the  will  of  the  country 
take  a  foreign  wife.  As  for  my  sister,  whom  the  duke  claims, 
that  he  may  marry  her  to  one  of  his  chiefs,  she  has  died 
within  the  year ;  would  he  have  me  send  her  corpse  ?  " 

William  sent  another  message,  which  met  with  a  similar 
answer;  and  then  the  duke  published  far  and  wide  through 
Christendom  what  he  termed  the  perjury  and  bad  faith  of  his 
rival,  and  proclaimed  his  intention  of  asserting  his  rights  by 
the  sword  before  the  year  should  expire,  and  of  pursuing  and 
punishing  the  perjurer  even  in  those  places  where  he  thought 
he  stood  most  strongly  and  most  securely. 

Before,  however,  he  commenced  hostilities,  William,  with 
deep-laid  policy,  submitted  his  claims  to  the  decision  of  the 
pope.  Harold  refused  to  acknowledge  this  tribunal,  or  to 
answer  before  an  Italian  priest  for  his  title  as  an  English  king. 
After  a  formal  examination  of  William's  complaints  by  the 
pope  and  the  cardinals,  it  was  solemnly  adjudged  at  Rome 
that  England  belonged  to  the  Norman  duke ;  and  a  banner 
was  sent  to  William  from  the  holy  see,  which  the  pope  him- 
self had  consecrated  and  blessed  for  the  invasion  of  this 
island.  The  clergy  throughout  the  Continent  were  now 
assiduous  and  energetic  in  preaching  up  William's  enterprise 
as  undertaken  in  the  cause  of  God.  Besides  these  spiritual 
arms  (the  effect  of  which  in  the  eleventh  century  must  not  be 
measured  by  the  philosophy  or  the  indifferentism  of  the 
nineteenth),  the  Norman  duke  applied  all  the  energies  of  his 
mind  and  body,  all  the  resources  of  his  duchy,  and  all  the 
influence  he  possessed  among  vassals  or  allies,  to  the  collec- 
tion of  "  the  most  remarkable  and  formidable  armament  which 


io66]  BATTLE   OF   HASTINGS  187 

the  Western  nations  had  witnessed."  [Mackintosh.]  All  the 
adventurous  spirits  of  Christendom  nocked  to  the  holy  banner, 
under  which  Duke  William,  the  most  renowned  knight  and 
sagest  general  of  the  age,  promised  to  lead  them  to  glory  and 
wealth  in  the  fair  domains  of  England.  His  army  was  filled 
with  the  chivalry  of  Continental  Europe,  all  eager  to  save  their 
souls  by  fighting  at  the  pope's  bidding,  ardent  to  signalize 
their  valor  in  so  great  an  enterprise,  and  longing  also  for  the 
pay  and  the  plunder  which  William  liberally  promised.  But 
the  Normans  themselves  were  the  pith  and  the  flower  of  the 
army ;  and  William  himself  was  the  strongest,  the  sagest,  and 
fiercest  spirit  of  them  all. 

Throughout  the  spring  and  summer  of  1066,  all  the  sea- 
ports of  Normandy,  Picardy,  and  Brittany  rang  with  the  busy 
sound  of  preparation.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  Channel, 
King  Harold  collected  the  army  and  the  fleet  with  which  he 
hoped  to  crush  the  southern  invaders.  But  the  unexpected 
attack  of  King  Harald  Hardrada  of  Norway  upon  another 
part  of  England  disconcerted  the  skilful  measures  which  the 
Saxon  had  taken  against  the  menacing  armada  of  Duke 
William. 

Harold's  renegade  brother,  Earl  Tostig,  had  excited  the 
Norse  king  to  this  enterprise,  the  importance  of  which  has 
naturally  been  eclipsed  by  the  superior  interest  attached  to 
the  victorious  expedition  of  Duke  William,  but  which  was  on 
a  scale  of  grandeur  which  the  Scandinavian  ports  had  rarely, 
if  ever  before,  witnessed.  Hardrada's  fleet  consisted  of  two 
hundred  war-ships  and  three  hundred  other  vessels,  and  all 
the  best  warriors  of  Norway  were  in  his  host.  He  sailed 
first  to  the  Orkneys,  where  many  of  the  islanders  joined  him, 
and  then  to  Yorkshire.  After  a  severe  conflict  near  York 
he  completely  routed  Earls  Edwin  and  Morcar,  the  govern- 
ors of  Northumbria.  The  city  of  York  opened  its  gates, 
and  all  the  country,  from  the  Tyne  to  the  H umber,  sub- 
mitted to  him.  The  tidings  of  the  defeat  of  Edwin  and 
Morcar  compelled  Harold  to  leave  his  position  on  the  south- 
ern coast,  and  move  instantly  against  the  Norwegians.  By 
a  remarkably  rapid  march  he  reached  Yorkshire  in  four 
days,  and  took  the  Norse  king  and  his  confederates  by  sur- 
prise.    Nevertheless,    the   battle   which   ensued,   and  which 


1 88  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1066 

was  fought  near  Stamford  Bridge,  was  desperate  and  was 
long  doubtful.  Unable  to  break  the  ranks  of  the  Norwegian 
phalanx  by  force,  Harold  at  length  tempted  them  to  quit  their 
close  order  by  a  pretended  flight.  Then  the  English  columns 
burst  in  among  them,  and  a  carnage  ensued,  the  extent  of 
which  may  be  judged  of  by  the  exhaustion  and  inactivity  of 
Norway  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  afterwards.  King  Harald 
Hardrada,  and  all  the  flower  of  his  nobility,  perished  on  the 
25th  of  September,  1066,  at  Stamford  Bridge;  a  battle 
which  was  a  Flodden  to  Norway. 

Harold's  victory  was  splendid ;  but  he  had  bought  it  dearly 
by  the  fall  of  many  of  his  best  officers  and  men ;  and  still 
more  dearly  by  the  opportunity  which  Duke  William  had 
gained  of  effecting  an  unopposed  landing  on  the  Sussex 
coast.  The  whole  of  William's  shipping  had  assembled  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Dive,  a  little  river  between  the  Seine  and 
the  Orme,  as  early  as  the  middle  of  August.  The  army 
which  he  had  collected  amounted  to  fifty  thousand  knights, 
and  ten  thousand  soldiers  of  inferior  degree.  Many  of  the 
knights  were  mounted,  but  many  must  have  served  on  foot ; 
as  it  is  hardly  possible  to  believe  that  William  could  have 
found  transports  for  the  conveyance  of  fifty  thousand  war- 
horses  across  the  Channel.  For  a  long  time  the  winds  were 
adverse  ;  and  the  duke  employed  the  interval  that  passed 
before  he  could  set  sail  in  completing  the  organization  and 
in  improving  the  discipline  of  his  army,  which  he  seems  to 
have  brought  into  the  same  state  of  perfection  as  was  seven 
centuries  and  a  half  afterwards  the  boast  of  another  army 
assembled  on  the  same  coast,  and  which  Napoleon  designed 
(but  providentially  in  vain)  for  a  similar  descent  upon  England. 

It  was  not  till  the  approach  of  the  equinox  that  the  wind 
veered  from  the  northeast  to  the  west,  and  gave  the  Nor- 
mans an  opportunity  of  quitting  the  weary  shores  of  the 
Dive.  They  eagerly  embarked  and  set  sail ;  but  the  wind 
soon  freshened  to  a  gale,  and  drove  them  along  the  French 
coast  to  St.  Valery,  where  the  greater  part  of  them  found 
shelter ;  but  many  of  their  vessels  were  wrecked,  and  the 
whole  coast  of  Normandy  was  strewn  with  the  bodies  of  the 
drowned.  William's  army  began  to  grow  discouraged  and 
averse  to  the  enterprise,  which  the  very  elements  thus  seemed 


io66J  BATTLE   OF   HASTINGS  1 89 

to  fight  against ;  though  in  reality  the  northeast  wind  which 
had  cooped  them  so  long  at  the  mouth  of  the  Dive,  and  the 
western  gale  which  had  forced  them  into  St.  Valery,  were 
the  best  possible  friends  to  the  invaders.  They  prevented 
the  Normans  from  crossing  the  Channel  until  the  Saxon  king 
and  his  army  of  defense  had  been  called  away  from  the 
Sussex  coast  to  encounter  Harald  Hardrada  in  Yorkshire ; 
and  also  until  a  formidable  English  fleet,  which  by  King 
Harold's  orders  had  been  cruising  in  the  Channel  to  inter- 
cept the  Normans,  had  been  obliged  to  disperse  temporarily 
for  the  purpose  of  refitting  and  taking  in  fresh  stores  of 
provisions. 

Duke  William  used  every  expedient  to  reanimate  the  droop- 
ing spirits  of  his  men  at  St.  Valery ;  and  at  last  he  caused 
the  body  of  the  patron  saint  of  the  place  to  be  exhumed  and 
carried  in  solemn  procession,  while  the  whole  assemblage  of 
soldiers,  mariners,  and  appurtenant  priests  implored  the 
saint's  intercession  for  a  change  of  wind.  That  very  night 
the  wind  veered,  and  enabled  the  medieval  Agamemnon  to 
quit  his  Aulis. 

With  full  sails,  and  a  following  southern  breeze,  the  Nor- 
man armada  left  the  French  shores  and  steered  for  England. 
The  invaders  crossed  an  undefended  sea,  and  found  an 
undefended  coast.  It  was  in  Pevensey  Bay  in  Sussex,  at 
Bulverhithe,  between  the  castle  of  Pevensey  and  Hastings, 
that  the  last  conquerors  of  this  island  landed,  on  the  29th  of 
September,  1066. 

Harold  was  at  York,  rejoicing  over  his  recent  victory, 
which  had  delivered  England  from  her  ancient  Scandinavian 
foes,  and  resettling  the  government  of  the  counties  which 
Harald  Hardrada  had  overrun,  when  the  tidings  reached 
him  that  Duke  William  of  Normandy  and  his  host  had 
landed  on  the  Sussex  shore.  Harold  instantly  hurried  south- 
ward to  meet  this  long-expected  enemy.  The  severe  loss 
which  his  army  had  sustained  in  the  battle  with  the  Norwe- 
gians must  have  made  it  impossible  for  any  large  number  of 
veteran  troops  to  accompany  him  in  his  forced  march  to 
London,  and  thence  to  Sussex.  He  halted  at  the  capital 
only  six  days ;  and  during  that  time  gave  orders  for  collect- 
ing forces  from  his  southern  and  midland  counties,  and  also 


190  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1066 

directed  his  fleet  to  reassemble  off  the  Sussex  coast.  Harold 
was  well  received  in  London,  and  his  summons  to  arms  was 
promptly  obeyed  by  citizen,  by  thane,  by  sokman,  and  by 
ceorl ;  for  he  had  shown  himself  during  his  brief  reign  a  just 
and  wise  king,  affable  to  all  men,  active  for  the  good  of  his 
country,  and  (in  the  words  of  the  old  historian)  sparing  him- 
self from  no  fatigue  by  land  or  sea.  He  might  have  gathered 
a  much  more  numerous  force  than  that  of  William,  but  his 
recent  victory  had  made  him  over-confident,  and  he  was 
irritated  by  the  reports  of  the  country  being  ravaged  by  the 
invaders.  As  soon,  therefore,  as  he  had  collected  a  small 
army  in  London,  he  marched  off  towards  the  coast ;  pressing 
forward  as  rapidly  as  his  men  could  traverse  Surrey  and 
Sussex,  in  the  hope  of  taking  the  Normans  unawares,  as  he 
had  recently  by  a  similar  forced  march  succeeded  in  surpris- 
ing the  Norwegians.  But  he  had  now  to  deal  with  a  foe 
equally  brave  with  Harald  Hardrada,  and  far  more  skilful 
and  wary. 

The  old  Norman  chroniclers  describe  the  preparations  of 
William  on  his  landing,  with  a  graphic  vigor  which  would  be 
wholly  lost  by  transfusing  their  racy  Norman  couplets  and 
terse  Latin  prose  into  the  current  style  of  modern  history.  It 
is  best  to  follow  them  closely,  though  at  the  expense  of  much 
quaintness  and  occasional  uncouthness  of  expression.  They 
tell  us  how  Duke  William's  own  ship  was  the  first  of  the  Nor- 
man fleet.  "  It  was  called  the  Mora,  and  was  the  gift  of  his 
duchess,  Matilda.  On  the  head  of  the  ship  in  the  front,  which 
mariners  call  the  prow,  there  was  a  brazen  child  bearing  an 
arrow  with  a  bended  bow.  His  face  was  turned  towards  Eng- 
land, and  thither  he  looked,  as  though  he  were  about  to  shoot. 
The  breeze  became  soft  and  sweet,  and  the  sea  was  smooth  for 
their  landing.  The  ships  ran  on  dry  land,  and  each  ranged 
by  the  other's  side.  There  you  might  see  the  good  sailors, 
the  sergeants,  and  squires  sally  forth  and  unload  the  ships ; 
cast  the  anchors,  haul  the  ropes,  bear  out  shields  and  saddles, 
and  land  the  war-horses  and  palfreys.  The  archers  came 
forth,  and  touched  land  the  first,  each  with  his  bow  strung, 
and  with  his  quiver  full  of  arrows,  slung  at  his  side.  All 
were  shaven  and  shorn  ;  and  all  clad  in  short  garments,  ready 
to  attack,  to  shoot,  to  wheel  about  and  skirmish.     All  stood 


io66]  BATTLE   OF   HASTINGS  191 

well  equipped,  and  of  good  courage  for  the  fight ;  and  they 
scoured  the  whole  shore,  but  found  not  an  armed  man  there. 
After  the  archers  had  thus  gone  forth,  the  knights  landed  all 
armed,  with  their  hauberks  on,  their  shields  slung  at  their 
necks,  and  their  helmets  laced.  They  formed  together  on 
the  shore,  each  armed,  and  mounted  on  his  war-horse :  all 
had  their  swords  girded  on,  and  rode  forward  into  the  coun- 
try with  their  lances  raised.  Then  the  carpenters  landed, 
who  had  great  axes  in  their  hands,  and  planes  and  adzes 
hung  at  their  sides.  They  took  counsel  together,  and  sought 
for  a  good  spot  to  place  a  castle  on.  They  had  brought  with 
them  in  the  fleet  three  wooden  castles  from  Normandy,  in 
pieces,  all  ready  for  framing  together,  and  they  took  the 
materials  of  one  of  these  out  of  the  ships,  all  shaped  and 
pierced  to  receive  the  pins  which  they  had  brought  cut  and 
ready  in  large  barrels ;  and  before  evening  had  set  in  they 
had  finished  a  good  fort  on  the  English  ground,  and  there 
they  placed  their  stores.  All  then  ate  and  drank  enough, 
and  were  right  glad  that  they  were  ashore. 

"When  Duke  William  himself  landed,  as  he  stepped  on  the 
shore,  he  slipped  and  fell  forward  upon  his  two  hands.  Forth- 
with all  raised  a  loud  cry  of  distress.  '  An  evil  sign,'  said  they, 
'is  here.'  But  he  cried  out  lustily,  'See,  my  lords!  by  the 
splendor  of  God,  I  have  taken  possession  of  England  with 
both  my  hands.     It  is  now  mine  ;  and  what  is  mine  is  yours.' 

"The  next  day  they  inarched  along  the  seashore  to  Has- 
tings. Near  that  place  the  duke  fortified  a  camp,  and  set  up 
the  two  other  wooden  castles.  The  foragers,  and  those  who 
looked  out  for  booty,  seized  all  the  clothing  and  provisions 
they  could  find,  lest  what  had  been  brought  by  the  ships 
should  fail  them.  And  the  English  were  to  be  seen  fleeing 
before  them,  driving  off  their  cattle,  and  quitting  their  houses. 
Many  took  shelter  in  burying-places,  and  even  there  they 
were  in  grievous  alarm." 

Besides  the  marauders  from  the  Norman  camp,  strong 
bodies  of  cavalry  were  detached  by  William  into  the  country, 
and  these,  when  Harold  and  his  army  made  their  rapid  march 
from  London  southward,  fell  back  in  good  order  upon  the 
main  body  of  the  Normans,  and  reported  that  the  Saxon  king 
was  rushing  on  like  a  madman.     But  Harold,  when  he  found 


192  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1066 

that  his  hopes  of  surprising  his  adversary  were  vain,  changed 
his  tactics,  and  halted  about  seven  miles  from  the  Norman 
lines.  He  sent  some  spies,  who  spoke  the  French  language, 
to  examine  the  number  and  preparations  of  the  enemy,  who, 
on  their  return,  related  with  astonishment  that  there  were 
more  priests  in  William's  camp  than  there  were  fighting  men 
in  the  English  army.  They  had  mistaken  for  priests  all  the 
Norman  soldiers  who  had  short  hair  and  shaven  chins ;  for 
the  English  laymen  were  then  accustomed  to  wear  long  hair 
and  mustaches.  Harold,  who  knew  the  Norman  usages, 
smiled  at  their  words  and  said,  "  Those  whom  you  have  seen 
in  such  numbers  are  not  priests,  but  stout  soldiers,  as  they  will 
soon  make  us  feel." 

Harold's  army  was  far  inferior  in  number  to  that  of  the 
Normans,  and  some  of  his  captains  advised  him  to  retreat 
upon  London,  and  lay  waste  the  country,  so  as  to  starve  down 
the  strength  of  the  invaders.  The  policy  thus  recommended 
was  unquestionably  the  wisest ;  for  the  Saxon  fleet  had  now 
reassembled,  and  intercepted  all  William's  communications 
with  Normandy ;  so  that  as  soon  as  his  stores  of  provisions 
were  exhausted  he  must  have  moved  forward  upon  London ; 
where  Harold,  at  the  head  of  the  full  military  strength  of  the 
kingdom,  could  have  defied  his  assault,  and  probably  might 
have  witnessed  his  rival's  destruction  by  famine  and  disease, 
without  having  to  strike  a  single  blow.  But  Harold's  bold 
blood  was  up,  and  his  kindly  heart  could  not  endure  to  inflict 
on  his  South  Saxon  subjects  even  the  temporary  misery  of 
wasting  the  country.  "  He  would  not  burn  houses  and  vil- 
lages, neither  would  he  take  away  the  substance  of  his  people." 

Harold's  brothers,  Gurth  and  Leofwine,  were  with  him  in 
the  camp,  and  Gurth  endeavored  to  persuade  him  to  absent 
himself  from  the  battle.  The  incident  shows  how  well  devised 
had  been  William's  scheme  of  binding  Harold  by  the  oath  on 
the  holy  relics.  "  My  brother,"  said  the  young  Saxon  prince, 
"  thou  canst  not  deny  that  either  by  force  or  free  will  thou 
hast  made  Duke  William  an  oath  on  the  bodies  of  saints. 
Why  then  risk  thyself  in  the  battle  with  a  perjury  upon  thee  ? 
To  us,  who  have  sworn  nothing,  this  is  a  holy  and  a  just  war, 
for  we  are  fighting  for  our  country.  Leave  us,  then,  alone 
to  fight  this  battle,  and  he  who  has  the  right  will  win."     Har- 


1066]  BATTLE   OF   HASTINGS  193 

old  replied  that  he  would  not  look  on  while  others  risked  their 
lives  for  him.  Men  would  hold  him  a  coward,  and  blame  him 
for  sending  his  best  friends  where  he  dared  not  go  himself. 
He  resolved,  therefore,  to  fight,  and  to  fight  in  person ;  but 
he  was  still  too  good  a  general  to  be  the  assailant  in  the  action. 
He  strengthened  his  position  on  the  hill  where  he  had  halted, 
by  a  palisade  of  stakes  interlaced  with  osier  hurdles,  and 
there,  he  said,  he  would  defend  himself  against  whoever  should 
seek  him. 

The  ruins  of  Battle  Abbey  at  this  hour  attest  the  place 
where  Harold's  army  was  posted.  The  high  altar  of  the 
abbey  stood  on  the  very  spot  where  Harold's  own  standard 
was  planted  during  the  fight,  and  where  the  carnage  was  the 
thickest.  Immediately  after  his  victory  William  vowed  to 
build  an  abbey  on  the  site  ;  and  a  fair  and  stately  pile  soon 
rose  there,  where  for  many  ages  the  monks  prayed  and  said 
masses  for  the  souls  of  those  who  were  slain  in  the  battle, 
whence  the  abbey  took  its  name.  Before  that  time  the  place 
was  called  Senlac.  Little  of  the  ancient  edifice  now  remains  ; 
but  it  is  easy  to  trace  among  its  relics  and  in  the  neighbor- 
hood the  scenes  of  the  chief  incidents  in  the  action ;  and  it 
is  impossible  to  deny  the  generalship  shown  by  Harold  in 
stationing  his  men ;  especially  when  we  bear  in  mind  that  he 
was  deficient  in  cavalry,  the  arm  in  which  his  adversary's 
main  strength  consisted. 

A  neck  of  hills  trends  inward  for  nearly  seven  miles  from 
the  high  ground  immediately  to  the  northeast  of  Hastings. 
The  line  of  this  neck  of  hills  is  from  southeast  to  northwest, 
and  the  usual  route  from  Hastings  to  London  must,  in  ancient 
as  in  modern  times,  have  been  along  its  summits.  At  the 
distance  from  Hastings  which  has  been  mentioned,  the  con- 
tinuous chain  of  hills  ceases.  A  valley  must  be  crossed,  and 
on  the  other  side  of  it,  opposite  to  the  last  of  the  neck  of  hills, 
rises  a  high  ground  of  some  extent,  facing  to  the  southeast. 
This  high  ground,  then  termed  Senlac,  was  occupied  by  Har- 
old's army.  It  could  not  be  attacked  in  front  without  con- 
siderable disadvantage  to  the  assailants,  and  could  hardly  be 
turned  without  those  engaged  in  the  maneuver  exposing 
themselves  to  a  fatal  charge  in  flank,  while  they  wound  round 
the  base  of  the  height,  and  underneath  the  ridges  which  pro- 


194  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1066 

ject  from  it  on  either  side.  There  was  a  rough  and  thickly 
wooded  district  in  the  rear,  which  seemed  to  offer  Harold 
great  facilities  for  rallying  his  men  and  checking  the  prog- 
ress of  the  enemy  if  they  should  succeed  in  forcing  him  back 
from  his  post.  And  it  seemed  scarcely  possible  that  the 
Normans,  if  they  met  with  any  repulse,  could  save  themselves 
from  utter  destruction.  With  such  hopes  and  expectations 
(which  cannot  be  termed  unreasonable,  though  "  Successum 
Dea  dira  negavit")  King  Harold  bade  his  standard  be  set  up 
a  little  way  down  the  slope  of  Senlac  Hill,  at  the  point  where 
the  ascent  from  the  valley  was  steep,  and  on  which  the  fierc- 
est attacks  of  the  advancing  enemy  were  sure  to  be  directed. 
The  foundation-stones  of  the  high  altar  of  Battle  Abbey 
have  during  late  years  been  discovered ;  and  we  may  place 
our  feet  on  the  very  spot  where  Harold  stood,  with  England's 
banner  waving  over  him ;  where,  when  the  battle  was  joined, 
he  defended  himself  to  the  utmost ;  where  the  fatal  arrow 
came  down  on  him ;  where  he  "  leaned  in  agony  on  his 
shield  " ;  and  where  at  last  he  was  beaten  to  the  earth,  and 
with  him  the  Saxon  banner  was  beaten  down,  like  him  never 
to  rise  again.  The  ruins  of  the  altar  are  a  little  to  the  west 
of  the  high  road  which  leads  from  Hastings  along  the  neck 
of  hills  already  described,  across  the  valley,  and  through  the 
modern  town  of  Battle,  towards  London.  Before  a  railway 
was  made  along  this  valley,  some  of  the  old  local  features 
were  more  easy  than  now  to  recognize.  The  eye  then  at 
once  saw  that  the  ascent  from  the  valley  was  least  steep  at 
the  point  which  Harold  selected  for  his  own  post  in  the 
engagement.  But  this  is  still  sufficiently  discernible ;  and 
we  can  fix  the  spot,  a  little  lower  down  the  slope,  immedi- 
ately in  front  of  the  high  altar,  where  the  brave  Kentish 
men  stood,  "  whose  right  it  was  to  strike  first  whenever  the 
king  went  to  battle,"  and  who,  therefore,  were  placed  where 
the  Normans  would  be  most  likely  to  make  their  first  charge. 
Round  Harold  himself,  and  where  the  plantations  wave  which 
now  surround  the  high  altar's  ruins,  stood  the  men  of  Lon- 
don, "  whose  privilege  it  was  to  guard  the  king's  body,  to 
place  themselves  around  it,  and  to  guard  his  standard."  On 
the  right  and  left  were  ranged  the  other  warriors  of  Central 
and  Southern  England,  whose  shires  the  old  Norman  chroni- 


io66]  BATTLE   OF   HASTINGS  195 

cler  distorts  in  his  French  nomenclature.  Looking  thence  in 
the  direction  of  Hastings,  we  can  distinguish  the  "  ridge  of 
the  rising  ground  over  which  the  Normans  appeared  advanc- 
ing." It  is  the  nearest  of  the  neck  of  hills.  It  is  along  that 
hill  that  Harold  and  his  brothers  saw  approach  in  succession 
the  three  divisions  of  the  Norman  army.  The  Normans  came 
down  that  slope,  and  then  formed  in  the  valley,  so  as  to 
assault  the  whole  front  of  the  English  position.  Duke  Will- 
iam's own  division,  with  "  the  best  men  and  greatest  strength  . 
of  the  army,"  made  the  Norman  center,  and  charged  the  Eng- 
lish immediately  in  front  of  Harold's  banner,  as  the  nature 
of  the  ground  had  led  the  Saxon  king  to  anticipate. 

There  are  few  battles  the  localities  of  which  can  be  more 
completely  traced ;  and  the  whole  scene  is  fraught  with  asso- 
ciations of  deep  interest;  but  the  spot  which,  most  of  all, 
awakens  our  sympathy  and  excites  our  feelings  is  that  where 
Harold  himself  fought  and  fell.  The  crumbling  fragments  of 
the  gray  altar-stones,  with  the  wild  flowers  that  cling  around 
their  base,  seem  fitting  memorials  of  the  brave  Saxon  who 
there  bowed  his  head  in  death ;  while  the  laurel-trees  that 
are  planted  near,  and  wave  over  the  ruins,  remind  us  of  the 
Conqueror,  who  there,  at  the  close  of  that  dreadful  day, 
reared  his  victorious  standard  high  over  the  trampled  ban- 
ner of  the  Saxon,  and  held  his  triumphant  carousal  amid 
the  corses  of  the  slain,  with  his  Norman  chivalry  exulting 
around  him. 

When  it  was  known  in  the  invaders'  camp  at  Hastings 
that  King  Harold  had  marched  southward  with  his  power, 
but  a  brief  interval  ensued  before  the  two  hosts  met  in  deci- 
sive encounter. 

William's  only  chance  of  safety  lay  in  bringing  on  a  gen- 
eral engagement ;  and  he  joyfully  advanced  his  army  from 
their  camp  on  the  hill  over  Hastings,  nearer  to  the  Saxon 
position.  But  he  neglected  no  means  of  weakening  his  oppo- 
nent, and  renewed  his  summonses  and  demands  on  Harold 
with  an  ostentatious  air  of  sanctity  and  moderation. 

"A  monk  named  Hugues  Maigrot  came  in  William's  name 
to  call  upon  the  Saxon  king  to  do  one  of  three  things  —  either 
to  resign  his  royalty  in  favor  of  William,  or  to  refer  it  to  the 
arbitration  of  the  pope  to  decide  which  of  the  two  ought  to 


196  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1066 

be  king,  or  to  let  it  be  determined  by  the  issue  of  a  single 
combat.  Harold  abruptly  replied,  '  I  will  not  resign  my  title, 
I  will  not  refer  it  to  the  pope,  nor  will  I  accept  the  single 
combat.'  He  was  far  from  being  deficient  in  bravery ;  but 
he  was  no  more  at  liberty  to  stake  the  crown  which  he  had 
received  from  a  whole  people  on  the  chance  of  a  duel  than  to 
deposit  it  in  the  hands  of  an  Italian  priest.  William  was  not 
at  all  ruffled  by  the  Saxon's  refusal,  but  steadily  pursuing  the 
course  of  his  calculated  measures,  sent  the  Norman  monk 
again,  after  giving  him  these  instructions  :  '  Go  and  tell  Harold 
that  if  he  will  keep  his  former  compact  with  me,  I  will  leave 
to  him  all  the  country  which  is  beyond  the  Humber,  and  will 
give  his  brother  Gurth  all  the  lands  which  Godwin  held.  If 
he  still  persist  in  refusing  my  offers,  then  thou  shalt  tell  him, 
before  all  his  people,  that  he  is  a  perjurer  and  a  liar ;  that  he, 
and  all  who  shall  support  him,  are  excommunicated  by  the 
mouth  of  the  pope ;  and  that  the  bull  to  that  effect  is  in  my 
hands.' 

"  Hugues  Maigrot  delivered  this  message  in  a  solemn  tone  ; 
and  the  Norman  chronicle  says  that  at  the  word  excommuni- 
cation the  English  chiefs  looked  at  one  another  as  if  some 
great  danger  were  impending.  One  of  them  then  spoke  as 
follows  :  '  We  must  fight,  whatever  may  be  the  danger  to  us  ; 
for  what  we  have  to  consider  is  not  whether  we  shall  accept 
and  receive  a  new  lord  as  if  our  king  were  dead :  the  case  is 
quite  otherwise.  The  Norman  has  given  our  lands  to  his 
captains,  to  his  knights,  to  all  his  people,  the  greater  part  of 
whom  have  already  done  homage  to  him  for  them ;  they  will 
all  look  for  their  gift,  if  their  duke  become  our  king ;  and  he 
himself  is  bound  to  deliver  up  to  them  our  goods,  our  wives, 
and  our  daughters  :  all  is  promised  to  them  beforehand.  They 
come,  not  only  to  ruin  us,  but  to  ruin  our  descendants  also, 
and  to  take  from  us  the  country  of  our  ancestors.  And  what 
shall  we  do  —  whither  shall  we  go  —  when  we  have  no  longer 
a  country  ? '  The  English  promised,  by  a  unanimous  oath, 
to  make  neither  peace  nor  truce  nor  treaty  with  the  invader, 
but  to  die  or  drive  away  the  Normans."     [Thierry.] 

The  13th  of  October  was  occupied  in  these  negotiations: 
and  at  night  the  duke  announced  to  his  men  that  the  next  day 
would   be   the   day  of   battle.     That   night   is  said  to  have 


io66]  BATTLE    OF    HASTINGS  197 

been  passed  by  the  two  armies  in  very  different  manners. 
The  Saxon  soldiers  spent  it  in  joviality,  singing  their  national 
songs,  and  draining  huge  horns  of  ale  and  wine  round  their 
camp-fires.  The  Normans,  when  they  had  looked  to  their 
arms  and  horses,  confessed  themselves  to  the  priests,  with 
whom  their  camp  was  thronged,  and  received  the  sacrament 
by  thousands  at  a  time. 

On  Saturday,  the  14th  of  October,  was  fought  the  great 
battle. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  compose  a  narrative  of  its  principal 
incidents,  from  the  historical  information  which  we  possess, 
especially  if  aided  by  an  examination  of  the  ground.  But  it 
is  far  better  to  adopt  the  spirit-stirring  words  of  the  old  chron- 
iclers, who  wrote  while  the  recollections  of  the  battle  were  yet 
fresh,  and  while  the  feelings  and  prejudices  of  the  combatants 
yet  glowed  in  the  bosoms  of  their  near  descendants.  Robert 
Wace,  the  Norman  poet,  who  presented  his  "  Roman  de  Rou  " 
to  our  Henry  II.,  is  the  most  picturesque  and  animated  of  the 
old  writers ;  and  from  him  we  can  obtain  a  more  vivid  and 
full  description  of  the  conflict  than  even  the  most  brilliant 
romance  writer  of  the  present  time  can  supply.  We  have 
also  an  antique  memorial  of  the  battle,  more  to  be  relied  on 
than  either  chronicler  or  poet  (and  which  confirms  Wace's 
narrative  remarkably),  in  the  celebrated  Bayeux  tapestry, 
which  represents  the  principal  scenes  of  Duke  William's 
expedition,  and  of  the  circumstances  connected  with  it,  in 
minute  though  occasionally  grotesque  details,  and  which  was 
undoubtedly  the  production  of  the  same  age  in  which  the 
battle  took  place,  whether  we  admit  or  reject  the  legend  that 
Queen  Matilda  and  the  ladies  of  her  court  wrought  it  with 
their  own  hands  in  honor  of  the  royal  Conqueror. 

Let  us  therefore  suffer  the  old  Norman  chronicler  to  trans- 
port our  imaginations  to  the  fair  Sussex  scenery,  northwest 
of  Hastings,  with  its  breezy  uplands,  its  grassy  slopes,  and 
ridges  of  open  down  swelling  inland  from  the  sparkling  sea, 
its  scattered  copses,  and  its  denser  glades  of  intervening 
forests,  clad  in  all  the  varied  tints  of  autumn,  as  they  appeared 
on  the  morning  of  the  14th  of  October,  seven  hundred  and 
eighty-five  years  ago.  The  Norman  host  is  pouring  forth 
from  its  tents ;  and  each  troop,  and  each  company,  is  forming 


198  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1066 

fast  under  the  banner  of  its  leader.  The  masses  have  been 
sung,  which  were  finished  betimes  in  the  morning  ;  the  barons 
have  all  assembled  round  Duke  William ;  and  the  duke  has 
ordered  that  the  army  shall  be  formed  in  three  divisions,  so 
as  to  make  the  attack  upon  the  Saxon  position  in  three  places. 
The  duke  stood  on  a  hill  where  he  could  best  see  his  men ; 
the  barons  surrounded  him,  and  he  spoke  to  them  proudly. 
He  told  them  how  he  trusted  them,  and  how  all  that  he  gained 
should  be  theirs ;  and  how  sure  he  felt  of  conquest,  for  in  all 
the  world  there  was  not  so  brave  an  army  or  such  good  men 
and  true  as  were  then  forming  around  him.  Then  they 
cheered  him  in  turn,  and  cried  out,  " '  You  will  not  see  one 
coward ;  none  here  will  fear  to  die  for  love  of  you,  if  need  be.' 
And  he  answered  them,  '  I  thank  you  well.  For  God's  sake 
spare  not;  strike  hard  at  the  beginning;  stay  not  to  take 
spoil ;  all  the  booty  shall  be  in  common,  and  there  will  be 
plenty  for  every  one.  There  will  be  no  safety  in  asking 
quarter  or  in  flight :  the  English  will  never  love  or  spare  a 
Norman.  Felons  they  were,  and  felons  they  are ;  false  they 
were,  and  false  they  will  be.  Show  no  weakness  towards 
them,  for  they  will  have  no  pity  on  you.  Neither  the  coward 
for  running  well,  nor  the  bold  man  for  smiting  well,  will  be 
the  better  liked  by  the  English,  nor  will  any  be  the  more 
spared  on  either  account.  You  may  fly  to  the  sea,  but  you 
can  fly  no  farther ;  you  will  find  neither  ships  nor  bridge 
there ;  there  will  be  no  sailors  to  receive  you ;  and  the  Eng- 
lish will  overtake  you  there  and  slay  you  in  your  shame. 
More  of  you  will  die  in  flight  than  in  the  battle.  Then,  as 
flight  will  not  secure  you,  fight,  and  you  will  conquer.  I  have 
no  doubt  of  the  victory :  we  are  come  for  glory,  the  victory 
is  in  our  hands,  and  we  may  make  sure  of  obtaining  it  if  we 
so  please.'  As  the  duke  was  speaking  thus,  and  would  yet 
have  spoken  more,  William  Fitz  Osber  rode  up,  with  his  horse 
all  coated  with  iron :  'Sire,'  said  he,  'we  tarry  here  too  long, 
let  us  all  arm  ourselves.     A  lions  !     A I  Ions!' 

"Then  all  went  to  their  tents,  and  armed  themselves  as 
they  best  might ;  and  the  duke  was  very  busy,  giving  every 
one  his  orders  ;  and  he  was  courteous  to  all  the  vassals,  giving 
away  many  arms  and  horses  to  them.  When  he  prepared  to 
arm  himself,  he  called  first  for  his  good  hauberk,  and  a  man 


1066]  BATTLE    OF   HASTINGS  199 

brought  it  on  his  arm,  and  placed  it  before  him,  but  in  putting 
his  head  in,  to  get  it  on,  he  unawares  turned  it  the  wrong 
way,  with  the  back  part  in  front.  He  soon  changed  it,  but 
when  he  saw  that  those  who  stood  by  were  sorely  alarmed, 
he  said,  '  I  have  seen  many  a  man  who,  if  such  a  thing  had 
happened  to  him,  would  not  have  borne  arms,  or  entered  the 
field  the  same  day  ;  but  I  never  believed  in  omens,  and  I 
never  will.  I  trust  in  God,  for  he  does  in  all  things  his 
pleasure,  and  ordains  what  is  to  come  to  pass,  according  to 
his  will.  I  have  never  liked  fortune-tellers,  nor  believed  in 
diviners ;  but  I  commend  myself  to  our  Lady.  Let  not  this 
mischance  give  you  trouble.  The  hauberk  which  was  turned 
wrong,  and  then  set  right  by  me,  signifies  that  a  change  will 
arise  out  of  the  matter  which  we  are  now  stirring.  You  shall 
see  the  name  of  duke  changed  into  king.  Yea,  a  king  shall 
I  be,  who  hitherto  have  been  but  duke.'  Then  he  crossed 
himself,  and  straightway  took  his  hauberk,  stooped  his  head, 
and  put  it  on  aright,  and  laced  his  helmet,  and  girt  on  his 
sword,  which  a  varlet  brought  him.  Then  the  duke  called 
for  his  good  horse  —  a  better  could  not  be  found.  It  had 
been  sent  him  by  a  king  of  Spain,  out  of  very  great  friend- 
ship. Neither  arms  nor  the  press  of  fighting  men  did  it  fear, 
if  its  lord  spurred  it  on.  Walter  Giffard  brought  it.  The 
duke  stretched  out  his  hand,  took  the  reins,  put  foot  in  stirrup, 
and  mounted ;  and  the  good  horse  pawed,  pranced,  reared 
himself  up,  and  curveted.  The  Viscount  of  Toarz  saw  how 
the  duke  bore  himself  in  arms,  and  said  to  his  people  that  were 
around  him,  '  Never  have  I  seen  a  man  so  fairly  armed,  nor 
one  who  rode  so  gallantly,  or  bore  his  arms  or  became  his 
hauberk  so  well ;  neither  any  one  who  bore  his  lance  so  grace- 
fully, or  sat  his  horse  and  managed  him  so  nobly.  There  is 
no  such  knight  under  heaven !  a  fair  count  he  is,  and  fair 
king  he  will  be.  Let  him  fight,  and  he  shall  overcome  :  shame 
be  to  the  man  who  shall  fail  him.' 

"  Then  the  duke  called  for  the  standard  which  the  pope  had 
sent  him,  and  he  who  bore  it  having  unfolded  it,  the  duke  took 
it,  and  called  to  Raol  de  Conches.  '  Bear  my  standard,'  said 
he, '  for  I  would  not  but  do  you  right ;  by  right  and  by  ancestry 
your  line  are  standard-bearers  of  Normandy,  and  very  good 
knights  have  they  all  been.'     But  Raol  said  that  he  would 


200  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1066 

serve  the  duke  that  day  in  other  guise,  and  would  fight  the 
English  with  his  hand  as  long  as  life  should  last.  Then  the 
duke  bade  Galtier  Giffart  bear  the  standard.  But  he  was  old 
and  white-headed,  and  bade  the  duke  give  the  standard  to 
some  younger  and  stronger  man  to  carry.  Then  the  duke 
said  fiercely, '  By  the  splendor  of  God,  my  lords,  I  think  you 
mean  to  betray  and  fail  me  in  this  great  need.'  '  Sire,'  said 
Giffart,  '  not  so !  we  have  done  no  treason,  nor  do  I  refuse 
from  any  felony  towards  you ;  but  I  have  to  lead  a  great 
chivalry,  both  hired  men  and  the  men  of  my  fief.  Never  had 
I  such  good  means  of  serving  you  as  I  now  have ;  and  if  God 
please,  I  will  serve  you  ;  if  need  be,  I  will  die  for  you,  and 
will  give  my  own  heart  for  yours.' 

" '  By  my  faith,'  quoth  the  duke,  '  I  always  loved  thee,  and 
now  I  love  thee  more ;  if  I  survive  this  day,  thou  shalt  be 
the  better  for  it  all  thy  days.'  Then  he  called  out  a  knight, 
whom  he  had  heard  much  praised,  Tosteins  Fitz-Rou  le  Blanc 
by  name,  whose  abode  was  at  Bec-en-Caux.  To  him  he  de- 
livered the  standard ;  and  Tosteins  took  it  right  cheerfully, 
and  bowed  low  to  him  in  thanks,  and  bore  it  gallantly,  and 
with  good  heart.  His  kindred  still  have  quittance  of  all  ser- 
vice for  their  inheritance  on  that  account,  and  their  heirs  are 
entitled  so  to  hold  their  inheritance  forever. 

"  William  sat  on  his  war-horse,  and  called  on  Rogier,  whom 
they  call  De  Mongomeri.  '  I  rely  much  upon  you,'  said  he  ; 
'  lead  your  men  thitherward,  and  attack  them  from  that  side. 
William,  the  son  of  Osber  the  seneschal,  a  right  good  vassal, 
shall  go  with  you  and  help  in  the  attack,  and  you  shall  have 
the  men  of  Boulogne  and  Poix,  and  all  my  soldiers.  Alain 
Fergert  and  Ameri  shall  attack  on  the  other  side  ;  they  shall 
lead  the  Poitevins  and  the  Bretons,  and  all  the  barons  of 
Maine  ;  and  I,  with  my  own  great  men,  my  friends  and  kin- 
dred, will  fight  in  the  middle  throng,  where  the  battle  shall 
be  the  hottest.' 

"  The  barons,  and  knights,  and  men-at-arms  were  all  now 
armed  ;  the  foot-soldiers  were  well  equipped,  each  bearing 
bow  and  sword ;  on  their  heads  were  caps,  and  to  their  feet 
were  bound  buskins.  Some  had  good  hides  which  they  had 
bound  round  their  bodies ;  and  many  were  clad  in  frocks,  and 
had  quivers  and  bows  hung  to  their  girdles.     The  knights 


1066]  BATTLE   OF   HASTINGS  201 

had  hauberks  and  swords,  boots  of  steel  and  shining  helmets  ; 
shields  at  their  necks,  and  in  their  hands  lances.  And  all 
had  their  cognizances,  so  that  each  might  know  his  fellow, 
and  Norman  might  not  strike  Norman,  nor  Frenchman  kill 
his  countryman  by  mistake.  Those  on  foot  led  the  way,  with 
serried  ranks,  bearing  their  bows.  The  knights  rode  next, 
supporting  the  archers  from  behind.  Thus  both  horse  and 
foot  kept  their  course  and  order  of  march  as  they  began  ;  in 
close  ranks,  at  a  gentle  pace,  that  the  one  might  not  pass  or 
separate  from  the  other.  All  went  firmly  and  compactly, 
bearing  themselves  gallantly. 

"  Harold  had  summoned  his  men,  earls,  barons,  and  vava- 
sors, from  the  castles  and  the  cities ;  from  the  ports,  the 
villages,  and  boroughs.  The  peasants  were  also  called  to- 
gether from  the  villages,  bearing  such  arms  as  they  found  ; 
clubs  and  great  picks,  iron  forks  and  stakes.  The  English 
had  enclosed  the  place  where  Harold  was,  with  his  friends 
and  the  barons  of  the  country  whom  he  had  summoned  and 
called  together. 

"  Those  of  London  had  come  at  once,  and  those  of  Kent, 
Hertfort,  and  of  Essesse ;  those  of  Suree  and  Susesse,  of  St. 
Edmund  and  Sufoc ;  of  Norwis  and  Norfoc  ;  of  Cantorbierre 
and  Stanfort ;  Bedefort  and  Hundetone.  The  men  of  North- 
anton  also  came  ;  and  those  of  Eurowic  and  Bokinkeham,  of 
Bed  and  Notinkeham,  Lindesie  and  Nichole.  There  came 
also  from  the  west  all  who  heard  the  summons  ;  and  very 
many  were  to  be  seen  coming  from  Salebiere  and  Dorset, 
from  Bat  and  from  Somerset.  Many  came,  too,  from  about 
Glocestre,  and  many  from  Wirecestre,  from  Wincestre,  Hon- 
tesire,  and  Brichesire ;  and  many  more  from  other  counties 
that  we  have  not  named,  and  cannot  indeed  recount.  All 
who  could  bear  arms,  and  had  learned  the  news  of  the  duke's 
arrival,  came  to  defend  the  land.  But  none  came  from  be- 
yond Humbre,  for  they  had  other  business  upon  their  hands, 
the  Danes  and  Tosti  having  much  damaged  and  weakened 
them. 

"  Harold  knew  that  the  Normans  would  come  and  attack 
him  hand  to  hand;  so  he  had  early  enclosed  the  field  in  which 
he  placed  his  men.  He  made  them  arm  early,  and  range 
themselves  for  the  battle ;  he  himself  having  put  on  arms  and 


202  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1066 

equipments  that  became  such  a  lord.  The  duke,  he  said, 
ought  to  seek  him,  as  he  wanted  to  conquer  England ;  and  it 
became  him  to  abide  the  attack,  who  had  to  defend  the  land. 
He  commanded  the  people,  and  counseled  his  barons  to  keep 
themselves  all  together,  and  defend  themselves  in  a  body ;  for 
if  they  once  separated,  they  would  with  difficulty  recover 
themselves.  '  The  Normans,'  he  said,  '  are  good  vassals, 
valiant  on  foot  and  on  horseback ;  good  knights  are  they  on 
horseback,  and  well  used  to  battle ;  all  is  lost  if  they  once 
penetrate  our  ranks.  They  have  brought  long  lances  and 
swords,  but  you  have  pointed  lances  and  keen-edged  bills ; 
and  I  do  not  expect  that  their  arms  can  stand  against  yours. 
Cleave  wherever  you  can ;  it  will  be  ill  done  if  you  spare 
aught.' 

"  The  English  had  built  up  a  fence  before  them  with  their 
shields  and  with  ash  and  other  wood ;  and  had  well  joined 
and  wattled  in  the  whole  work,  so  as  not  to  leave  even  a 
crevice ;  and  thus  they  had  a  barricade  in  their  front  through 
which  any  Norman  who  would  attack  them  must  first  pass. 
Being  covered  in  this  way  by  their  shields  and  barricades, 
their  aim  was  to  defend  themselves ;  and  if  they  had  re- 
mained steady  for  that  purpose  they  would  not  have  been 
conquered  that  day ;  for  every  Norman  who  made  his  way 
in  lost  his  life,  either  by  hatchet  or  bill,  by  club,  or  other 
weapons.  They  wore  short  and  close  hauberks,  and  helmets 
that  hung  over  their  garments.  King  Harold  issued  orders 
and  made  proclamation  round  that  all  should  be  ranged  with 
their  faces  towards  the  enemy  ;  and  that  no  one  should  move 
from  where  he  was ;  so  that,  whoever  came,  might  find  them 
ready ;  and  that  whatever  any  one,  be  he  Norman  or  other, 
should  do,  each  should  do  his  best  to  defend  his  own  place. 
Then  he  ordered  the  men  of  Kent  to  go  where  the  Normans 
were  likely  to  make  the  attack ;  for  they  say  that  the  men  of 
Kent  are  entitled  to  strike  first ;  and  that  whenever  the  king 
goes  to  battle,  the  first  blow  belongs  to  them.  The  right 
of  the  men  of  London  is  to  guard  the  king's  body,  to  place 
themselves  around  him,  and  to  guard  his  standard ;  and  they 
were  accordingly  placed  by  the  standard  to  watch  and  defend  it. 

"  When  Harold  had  made  his  reply  and  given  his  orders,  he 
came  into  the  midst  of  the  English,  and  dismounted  by  the 


1066]  BATTLE   OF   HASTINGS  203 

side  of  the  standard :  Leofwine  and  Gurth,  his  brothers, 
were  with  him,  and  around  him  he  had  barons  enough,  as 
he  stood  by  his  standard,  which  was  in  truth  a  noble  one, 
sparkling  with  gold  and  precious  stones.  After  the  victory, 
William  sent  it  to  the  pope,  to  prove  and  commemorate  his 
great  conquest  and  glory.  The  English  stood  in  close  ranks, 
ready  and  eager  for  the  fight ;  and  they  moreover  made  a 
fosse,  which  went  across  the  field,  guarding  one  side  of  their 
army. 

"  Meanwhile  the  Normans  appeared  advancing  over  the 
ridge  of  a  rising  ground  ;  and  the  first  division  of  their  troops 
moved  onwards  along  the  hill  and  across  a  valley.  And  pres- 
ently another  division,  still  larger,  came  in  sight,  close  follow- 
ing upon  the  first,  and  they  were  led  towards  another  part  of 
the  field,  forming  together  as  the  first  body  had  done.  And 
while  Harold  saw  and  examined  them,  and  was  pointing  them 
out  to  Gurth,  a  fresh  company  came  in  sight,  covering  all  the 
plain ;  and  in  the  midst  of  them  was  raised  the  standard  that 
came  from  Rome.  Near  it  was  the  duke,  and  the  best  men 
and  greatest  strength  of  the  army  were  there.  The  good 
knights,  the  good  vassals,  and  brave  warriors  were  there  ;  and 
there  were  gathered  together  the  gentle  barons,  the  good  arch- 
ers, and  the  men-at-arms,  whose  duty  it  was  to  guard  the  duke, 
and  range  themselves  around  him.  The  youths  and  common 
herd  of  the  camp,  whose  business  was  not  to  join  in  the  battle, 
but  to  take  care  of  the  harness  and  stores,  moved  off  towards 
a  rising  ground.  The  priests  and  the  clerks  also  ascended  a 
hill,  there  to  offer  up  prayers  to  God,  and  watch  the  event  of 
the  battle. 

"  The  English  stood  firm  on  foot  in  close  ranks,  and  carried 
themselves  right  boldly.  Each  man  had  his  hauberk  on,  with 
his  sword  girt,  and  his  shield  at  his  neck.  Great  hatchets  were 
also  slung  at  their  necks,  with  which  they  expected  to  strike 
heavy  blows. 

"  The  Normans  brought  on  the  three  divisions  of  their  army 
to  attack  at  different  places.  They  set  out  in  three  companies, 
and  in  three  companies  did  they  fight.  The  first  and  second 
had  come  up,  and  then  advanced  the  third,  which  was  the 
greatest ;  with  that  came  the  duke  with  his  own  men,  and  all 
moved  boldly  forward. 


204  DECISIVE  BATTLES  [1066 

"  As  soon  as  the  two  armies  were  in  full  view  of  each  other, 
great  noise  and  tumult  arose.  You  might  hear  the  sound  of 
many  trumpets,  of  bugles,  and  of  horns ;  and  then  you  might 
see  men  ranging  themselves  in  line,  lifting  their  shields,  rais- 
ing their  lances,  bending  their  bows,  handling  their  arrows, 
ready  for  assault  and  defense. 

"  The  English  stood  ready  to  their  post,  the  Normans  still 
moved  on  ;  and  when  they  drew  near,  the  English  were  to  be 
seen  stirring  to  and  fro  ;  were  going  and  coming ;  troops  rang- 
ing themselves  in  order ;  some  with  their  color  rising,  others 
turning  pale ;  some  making  ready  their  arms,  others  raising 
their  shields ;  the  brave  man  rousing  himself  to  fight,  the 
coward  trembling  at  the  approach  of  danger. 

"  Then  Taillef er,  who  sang  right  well,  rode  mounted  on  a 
swift  horse,  before  the  duke,  singing  of  Charlemagne  and  of 
Roland,  of  Olivier  and  the  peers  who  died  in  Roncesvalles. 
And  when  they  drew  nigh  to  the  English,  '  A  boon,  sire ! ' 
cried  Taillef  er ;  '  I  have  long  served  you,  and  you  owe  me  for 
all  such  service.  To-day,  so  please  you,  you  shall  repay  it. 
I  ask  as  my  guerdon,  and  beseech  you  for  it  earnestly,  that 
you  will  allow  me  to  strike  the  first  blow  in  the  battle  ! '  And 
the  duke  answered,  '  I  grant  it.'  Then  Taillefer  put  his  horse 
to  a  gallop,  charging  before  all  the  rest,  and  struck  an  English- 
man dead,  driving  his  lance  below  the  breast  into  his  body,  and 
stretching  him  upon  the  ground.  Then  he  drew  his  sword, 
and  struck  another,  crying  out,  '  Come  on,  come  on !  What 
do  ye,  sirs  ?  lay  on,  lay  on  ! '  At  the  second  blow  he  struck, 
the  English  pushed  forward,  and  surrounded  and  slew  him. 
Forthwith  arose  the  noise  and  cry  of  war,  and  on  either  side 
the  people  put  themselves  in  motion. 

"  The  Normans  moved  on  to  the  assault,  and  the  English 
defended  themselves  well.  Some  were  striking,  others  urging 
onward  ;  all  were  bold,  and  cast  aside  fear.  And  now,  behold, 
that  battle  was  gathered,  whereof  the  fame  is  yet  mighty. 

"  Loud  and  far  resounded  the  bray  of  the  horns ;  and  the 
shocks  of  the  lances,  the  mighty  strokes  of  maces,  and  the 
quick  clashing  of  swords.  One  while  the  Englishmen  rushed 
on,  another  while  they  fell  back  ;  one  while  the  men  from  over 
the  sea  charged  onward,  and  again  at  other  times  retreated. 
The  Normans  shouted  '  Dex  aie! '  the  English  people  *  Out ! ' 


1066]  BATTLE   OF   HASTINGS  205 

Then  came  the  cunning  maneuvers,  the  rude  shocks  and 
strokes  of  the  lance  and  blows  of  the  swords,  among  the  ser- 
geants and  soldiers,  both  English  and  Norman. 

"  When  the  English  fall,  the  Normans  shout.  Each  side 
taunts  and  defies  the  other,  yet  neither  knoweth  what  the  other 
saith ;  and  the  Normans  say  the  English  bark,  because  they 
understand  not  their  speech. 

"  Some  wax  strong,  others  weak ;  the  brave  exult,  but  the 
cowards  tremble,  as  men  who  are  sore  dismayed.  The  Nor- 
mans press  on  the  assault,  and  the  English  defend  their  post 
well ;  they  pierce  the  hauberks,  and  cleave  the  shields,  receive 
and  return  mighty  blows.  Again,  some  press  forward,  others 
yield  ;  and  thus  in  various  ways  the  struggle  proceeds.  In  the 
plain  was  a  fosse,  which  the  Normans  had  now  behind  them, 
having  passed  it  in  the  fight  without  regarding  it.  But  the 
English  charged,  and  drove  the  Normans  before  them  till  they 
made  them  fall  back  upon  this  fosse,  overthrowing  into  it 
horses  and  men.  Many  were  to  be  seen  falling  therein,  roll- 
ing one  over  the  other,  with  their  faces  to  the  earth,  and 
unable  to  rise.  Many  of  the  English,  also,  whom  the  Nor- 
mans drew  down  along  with  them,  died  there.  At  no  time  dur- 
ing the  day's  battle  did  so  many  Normans  die  as  perished  in 
that  fosse.     So  those  said  who  saw  the  dead. 

"  The  varlets  who  were  set  to  guard  the  harness  began  to 
abandon  it  as  they  saw  the  loss  of  the  Frenchmen,  when 
thrown  back  upon  the  fosse  without  power  to  recover  them- 
selves. Being  greatly  alarmed  at  seeing  the  difficulty  in 
restoring  order,  they  began  to  quit  the  harness,  and  sought 
around,  not  knowing  where  to  find  shelter.  The  Duke  Will- 
iam's brother,  Odo,  the  good  priest,  the  Bishop  of  Bayeux, 
galloped  up,  and  said  to  them,  '  Stand  fast !  stand  fast !  be 
quiet  and  move  not !  fear  nothing,  for  if  God  please,  we  shall 
conquer  yet.'  So  they  took  courage,  and  rested  where  they 
were ;  and  Odo  returned,  galloping  back  to  where  the  battle 
was  most  fierce,  and  was  of  great  service  on  that  day.  He 
had  put  a  hauberk  on,  over  a  white  aube,  wide  in  the  body, 
with  the  sleeve  tight ;  and  sat  on  a  white  horse,  so  that  all  might 
recognize  him.  In  his  hand  he  held  a  mace,  and  wherever  he 
saw  most  need  he  held  up  and  stationed  the  knights,  and  often 
urged  them  on  to  assault  and  strike  the  enemy. 


206  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1066 

"  From  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning,  when  the  combat  be- 
gan, till  three  o'clock  came,  the  battle  was  up  and  down,  this 
way  and  that,  and  no  one  knew  who  would  conquer  and  win 
the  land.  Both  sides  stood  so  firm  and  fought  so  well  that 
no  one  could  guess  which  would  prevail.  The  Norman 
archers  with  their  bows  shot  thickly  upon  the  English ;  but 
they  covered  themselves  with  their  shields,  so  that  the  arrows 
could  not  reach  their  bodies,  nor  do  any  mischief,  how  true 
soever  was  their  aim,  or  however  well  they  shot.  Then  the 
Normans  determined  to  shoot  their  arrows  upwards  into  the 
air,  so  that  they  might  fall  on  their  enemies'  heads,  and  strike 
their  faces.  The  archers  adopted  this  scheme,  and  shot  up 
into  the  air  towards  the  English ;  and  the  arrows  in  falling 
struck  their  heads  and  faces,  and  put  out  the  eyes  of  many ; 
and  all  feared  to  open  their  eyes,  or  leave  their  faces  un- 
guarded. 

"  The  arrows  now  flew  thicker  than  rain  before  the  wind ; 
fast  sped  the  shafts  that  the  English  called  '  wibetes.'  Then 
it  was  that  an  arrow,  that  had  been  thus  shot  upward,  struck 
Harold  above  his  right  eye,  and  put  it  out.  In  his  agony  he 
drew  the  arrow  and  threw  it  away,  breaking  it  with  his  hands  ; 
and  the  pain  to  his  head  was  so  great  that  he  leaned  upon  his 
shield.  So  the  English  were  wont  to  say,  and  still  say  to  the 
French,  that  the  arrow  was  well  shot  which  was  so  sent  up 
against  their  king  ;  and  that  the  archer  won  them  great  glory, 
who  thus  put  out  Harold's  eye. 

"  The  Normans  saw  that  the  English  defended  themselves 
well,  and  were  so  strong  in  their  position  that  they  could  do 
little  against  them.  So  they  consulted  together  privily,  and 
arranged  to  draw  off,  and  pretend  to  flee,  till  the  English  should 
pursue  and  scatter  themselves  over  the  field;  for  they  saw 
that  if  they  could  once  get  their  enemies  to  break  their  ranks, 
they  might  be  attacked  and  discomfited  much  more  easily.  As 
they  had  said,  so  they  did.  The  Normans  by  little  and  little 
fled,  the  English  following  them.  As  the  one  fell  back,  the 
other  pressed  after ;  and  when  the  Frenchmen  retreated,  the 
English  thought  and  cried  out  that  the  men  of  France  fled, 
and  would  never  return. 

"Thus  they  were  deceived  by  the  pretended  flight,  and 
great  mischief  thereby  befell  them  ;  for  if  they  had  not  moved 


io66]  BATTLE   OF   HASTINGS  207 

from  their  position,  it  is  not  likely  that  they  would  have  been 
conquered  at  all ;  but  like  fools  they  broke  their  lines  and 
pursued. 

"  The  Normans  were  to  be  seen  following  up  their  strata- 
gem, retreating  slowly  so  as  to  draw  the  English  farther  on. 
As  they  still  flee,  the  English  pursue ;  they  push  out  their 
lances  and  stretch  forth  their  hatchets  ;  following  the  Nor- 
mans, as  they  go  rejoicing  in  the  success  of  their  scheme,  and 
scattering  themselves  over  the  plain.  And  the  English  mean- 
time jeered  and  insulted  their  foes  with  words.  '  Cowards,' 
they  cried,  '  you  came  hither  in  an  evil  hour,  wanting  our 
lands,  and  seeking  to  seize  our  property,  fools  that  ye  were 
to  come !  Normandy  is  too  far  off,  and  you  will  not  easily 
reach  it.  It  is  of  little  use  to  run  back ;  unless  you  can  cross 
the  sea  at  a  leap,  or  can  drink  it  dry,  your  sons  and  daugh- 
ters are  lost  to  you.' 

"  The  Normans  bore  it  all,  but  in  fact  they  knew  not  what 
the  English  said :  their  language  seemed  like  the  baying  of 
dogs,  which  they  could  not  understand.  At  length  they 
stopped  and  turned  round,  determined  to  recover  their  ranks ; 
and  the  barons  might  be  heard  crying  '  Dex  aie  ! '  for  a  halt. 
Then  the  Normans  resumed  their  former  position,  turning 
their  faces  towards  the  enemy ;  and  their  men  were  to  be  seen 
facing  round  and  rushing  onward  to  a  fresh  melee  ;  the  one 
party  assaulting  the  other;  this  man  striking,  another  press- 
ing onward.  One  hits,  another  misses ;  one  flies,  another 
pursues ;  one  is  aiming  a  stroke,  while  another  discharges  his 
blow.  Norman  strives  with  Englishman  again,  and  aims  his 
blow  afresh.  One  flies,  another  pursues  swiftly  ;  the  combat- 
ants are  many,  the  plain  wide,  the  battle  and  the  mel6e  fierce. 
On  every  hand  they  fight  hard,  the  blows  are  heavy,  and  the 
struggle  becomes  fierce. 

"  The  Normans  were  playing  their  part  well,  when  an  Eng- 
lish knight  came  rushing  up,  having  in  his  company  a  hundred 
men,  furnished  with  various  arms.  He  wielded  a  northern 
hatchet,  with  the  blade  a  full  foot  long  ;  and  was  well  armed 
after  his  manner,  being  tall,  bold,  and  of  noble  carriage.  In 
the  front  of  the  battle  where  the  Normans  thronged  most,  he 
came  bounding  on  swifter  than  the  stag,  many  Normans 
falling  before  him  and  his  company.     He  rushed  straight 


208  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1066 

upon  a  Norman  who  was  armed  and  riding  on  a  war-horse, 
and  tried  with  his  hatchet  of  steel  to  cleave  his  helmet ;  but 
the  blow  miscarried,  and  the  sharp  blade  glanced  down  before 
the  saddle-bow,  driving  through  the  horse's  neck  down  to  the 
ground,  so  that  both  horse  and  master  fell  together  to  the 
earth.  I  know  not  whether  the  Englishman  struck  another 
blow ;  but  the  Normans  who  saw  the  stroke  were  astonished, 
and  about  to  abandon  the  assault,  when  Roger  de  Mongomeri 
came  galloping  up,  with  his  lance  set,  and  heeding  not  the 
long-handled  ax,  which  the  Englishman  wielded  aloft,  struck 
him  down,  and  left  him  stretched  upon  the  ground.  Then 
Roger  cried  out,  '  Frenchmen,  strike  !  the  day  is  ours! '  And 
again  a  fierce  melee  was  to  be  seen,  with  many  a  blow  of 
lance  and  sword ;  the  English  still  defending  themselves,  kill- 
ing the  horses  and  cleaving  the  shields. 

"  There  was  a  French  soldier  of  noble  mien,  who  sat  his 
horse  gallantly.  He  spied  two  Englishmen  who  were  also 
carrying  themselves  boldly.  They  were  both  men  of  great 
worth,  and  had  become  companions  in  arms  and  fought  to- 
gether, the  one  protecting  the  other.  They  bore  two  long 
and  broad  bills,  and  did  great  mischief  to  the  Normans,  kill- 
ing both  horses  and  men.  The  French  soldier  looked  at  them 
and  their  bills,  and  was  sore  alarmed,  for  he  was  afraid  of 
losing  his  good  horse,  the  best  that  he  had  ;  and  would  will- 
ingly have  turned  to  some  other  quarter,  if  it  would  not  have 
looked  like  cowardice.  He  soon,  however,  recovered  his 
courage,  and,  spurring  his  horse,  gave  him  the  bridle,  and 
galloped  swiftly  forward.  Fearing  the  two  bills,  he  raised 
his  shield,  and  struck  one  of  the  Englishmen  with  his  lance  on 
the  breast,  so  that  the  iron  passed  out  at  his  back.  At  the 
moment  that  he  fell  the  lance  broke,  and  the  Frenchman 
seized  the  mace  that  hung  at  his  right  side,  and  struck  the 
other  Englishman  a  blow  that  completely  broke  his  skull. 

"On  the  other  side  was  an  Englishman  who  much  annoyed 
the  French,  continually  assaulting  them  with  a  keen-edged 
hatchet.  He  had  a  helmet  made  of  wood,  which  he  had  fast- 
ened down  to  his  coat,  and  laced  round  his  neck,  so  that  no 
blows  could  reach  his  head.  The  ravage  he  was  making  was 
seen  by  a  gallant  Norman  knight,  who  rode  a  horse  that 
neither  fire  nor  water  could  stop  in  its  career,  when  its  master 


1066]  BATTLE   OF   HASTINGS  209 

urged  it  on.  The  knight  spurred,  and  his  horse  carried  him 
on  well  till  he  charged  the  Englishman,  striking  him  over 
the  helmet,  so  that  it  fell  down  over  his  eyes ;  and  as  he 
stretched  out  his  hand  to  raise  it  and  uncover  the  face,  the 
Norman  cut  off  his  right  hand,  so  that  his  hatchet  fell  to  the 
ground.  Another  Norman  sprang  forward  and  eagerly- 
seized  the  prize  with  both  his  hands,  but  he  kept  it  little 
space,  and  paid  dearly  for  it,  for  as  he  stooped  to  pick  up  the 
hatchet,  an  Englishman  with  his  long-handled  ax  struck 
him  over  the  back,  breaking  all  his  bones,  so  that  his  entrails 
and  lungs  gushed  forth.  The  knight  of  the  good  horse 
meantime  returned  without  injury ;  but  on  his  way  he  met 
another  Englishman,  and  bore  him  down  under  his  horse, 
wounding  him  grievously,  and  trampling  him  altogether 
under  foot. 

"And  now  might  be  heard  the  loud  clang  and  cry  of 
battle,  and  the  clashing  of  lances.  The  English  stood  firm 
in  their  barricades,  and  shivered  the  lances,  beating  them 
into  pieces  with  their  bills  and  maces.  The  Normans  drew 
their  swords,  and  hewed  down  the  barricades,  and  the  Eng- 
lish in  great  trouble  fell  back  upon  their  standard,  where 
were  collected  the  maimed  and  wounded. 

"There  were  many  knights  of  Chauz,  who  jousted  and 
made  attacks.  The  English  knew  not  how  to  joust,  or  bear 
arms  on  horseback,  but  fought  with  hatchets  and  bills.  A 
man  when  he  wanted  to  strike  with  one  of  their  hatchets  was 
obliged  to  hold  it  with  both  his  hands,  and  could  not  at  the 
same  time,  as  it  seems  to  me,  both  cover  himself  and  strike 
with  any  freedom. 

"  The  English  fell  back  towards  the  standard,  which  was 
upon  a  rising  ground,  and  the  Normans  followed  them  across 
the  valley,  attacking  them  on  foot  and  horseback.  Then 
Hue  de  Mortemer,  with  the  sires  D'Auviler,  D'Onebac,  and 
St.  Cler,  rode  up  and  charged,  overthrowing  many. 

"  Robert  Fitz  Erneis  fixed  his  lance,  took  his  shield,  and, 
galloping  towards  the  standard,  with  his  keen-edged  sword 
struck  an  Englishman  who  was  in  front,  killed  him,  and 
then,  drawing  back  his  sword,  attacked  many  others,  and 
pushed  straight  for  the  standard,  trying  to  beat  it  down,  but 
the  English  surrounded  it,  and  killed  him  with  their  bills. 


2IO  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1066 

He  was  found  on  the  spot,  when  they  afterwards  sought  for 
him,  dead,  and  lying  at  the  standard's  foot. 

"  Duke  William  pressed  close  upon  the  English  with  his 
lance  ;  striving  hard  to  reach  the  standard  with  the  great 
troop  he  led ;  and  seeking  earnestly  for  Harold,  on  whose 
account  the  whole  war  was.  The  Normans  follow  their 
lord,  and  press  around  him  ;  they  ply  their  blows  upon  the 
English  ;  and  these  defend  themselves  stoutly,  striving  hard 
with  their  enemies,  returning  blow  for  blow. 

"  One  of  them  was  a  man  of  great  strength,  a  wrestler, 
who  did  great  mischief  to  the  Normans  with  his  hatchet ;  all 
feared  him,  for  he  struck  down  a  great  many  Normans. 
The  duke  spurred  on  his  horse,  and  aimed  a  blow  at  him, 
but  he  stooped,  and  so  escaped  the  stroke ;  then  jumping  on 
one  side,  he  lifted  his  hatchet  aloft,  and  as  the  duke  bent  to 
avoid  the  blow  the  Englishman  boldly  struck  him  on  the 
head,  and  beat  in  his  helmet,  though  without  doing  much 
injury.  He  was  very  near  falling,  however,  but  bearing  on 
his  stirrups  he  recovered  himself  immediately ;  and  when  he 
thought  to  have  revenged  himself  upon  the  churl  by  killing 
him,  he  had  escaped,  dreading  the  duke's  blow.  He  ran 
back  in  among  the  English,  but  he  was  not  safe  even  there ; 
for  the  Normans,  seeing  him,  pursued  and  caught  him ;  and, 
having  pierced  him  through  and  through  with  their  lances, 
left  him  dead  on  the  ground. 

"  Where  the  throng  of  the  battle  was  greatest,  the  men  of 
Kent  and  Essex  fought  wondrously  well,  and  made  the  Nor- 
mans again  retreat,  but  without  doing  them  much  injury. 
And  when  the  duke  saw  his  men  fall  back  and  the  English 
triumphing  over  them,  his  spirit  rose  high,  and  he  seized  his 
shield  and  his  lance,  which  a  vassal  handed  to  him,  and  took 
his  post  by  his  standard. 

"  Then  those  who  kept  close  guard  by  him  and  rode  where 
he  rode,  being  about  a  thousand  armed  men,  came  and  rushed 
with  closed  ranks  upon  the  English  ;  and  with  the  weight  of 
their  good  horses,  and  the  blows  the  knights  gave,  broke  the 
press  of  the  enemy,  and  scattered  the  crowd  before  them, 
the  good  duke  leading  them  on  in  front.  Many  pursued  and 
many  fled ;  many  were  the  Englishmen  who  fell  around,  and 
were  trampled  under  the  horses,  crawling  upon  the  earth, 


BA  TTLE  OF  HASTINGS. 

Photogravure  from  an  engraving. 


1066]  BATTLE   OF   HASTINGS  211 

and  not  able  to  rise.  Many  of  the  richest  and  noblest  men 
fell  in  that  rout,  but  the  English  still  rallied  in  places ;  smote 
down  those  whom  they  reached,  and  maintained  the  combat 
the  best  they  could ;  beating  down  the  men  and  killing  the 
horses.  One  Englishman  watched  the  duke,  and  plotted  to 
kill  him ;  he  would  have  struck  him  with  his  lance,  but  he 
could  not,  for  the  duke  struck  him  first,  and  felled  him  to 
the  earth. 

"  Loud  was  now  the  clamor,  and  great  the  slaughter  ;  many 
a  soul  then  quitted  the  body  it  inhabited.  The  living  marched 
over  the  heaps  of  dead,  and  each  side  was  weary  of  striking. 
He  charged  on  who  could,  and  he  who  could  no  longer  strike 
still  pushed  forward.  The  strong  struggled  with  the  strong ; 
some  failed,  others  triumphed ;  the  cowards  fell  back,  the 
brave  pressed  on  ;  and  sad  was  his  fate  who  fell  in  the  midst, 
for  he  had  little  chance  of  rising  again ;  and  many  in  truth 
fell,  who  never  rose  at  all,  being  crushed  under  the  throng. 

"  And  now  the  Normans  pressed  on  so  far,  that  at  last  they 
had  reached  the  standard.  There  Harold  had  remained,  de- 
fending himself  to  the  utmost ;  but  he  was  sorely  wounded 
in  his  eye  by  the  arrow,  and  suffered  grievous  pain  from  the 
blow.  An  armed  man  came  in  the  throng  of  the  battle,  and 
struck  him  on  the  ventail  of  his  helmet,  and  beat  him  to 
the  ground ;  and  as  he  sought  to  recover  himself,  a  knight 
beat  him  down  again,  striking  him  on  the  thick  of  his  thigh, 
down  to  the  bone. 

"  Gurth  saw  the  English  falling  around,  and  that  there 
was  no  remedy.  He  saw  his  race  hastening  to  ruin,  and 
despaired  of  any  aid ;  he  would  have  fled,  but  could  not,  for 
the  throng  continually  increased.  And  the  duke  pushed  on 
till  he  reached  him,  and  struck  him  with  great  force.  Whether 
he  died  of  that  blow  I  know  not,  but  it  was  said  that  he  fell 
under  it,  and  rose  no  more. 

"  The  standard  was  beaten  down,  the  golden  standard  was 
taken,  and  Harold  and  the  best  of  his  friends  were  slain;  but 
there  was  so  much  eagerness,  and  throng  of  so  many  around, 
seeking  to  kill  him,  that  I  know  not  who  it  was  that  slew  him. 

"The  English  were  in  great  trouble  at  having  lost  their 
king,  and  at  the  duke's  having  conquered  and  beat  down  the 
standard;  but  they  still  fought  on,  and  defended  themselves 


212  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1066 

long,  and  in  fact  till  the  day  drew  to  a  close.  Then  it  clearly 
appeared  to  all  that  the  standard  was  lost,  and  the  news  had 
spread  throughout  the  army  that  Harold  for  certain  was  dead; 
and  all  saw  that  there  was  no  longer  any  hope,  so  they  left 
the  field,  and  those  fled  who  could. 

"William  fought  well ;  many  an  assault  did  he  lead,  many 
a  blow  did  he  give,  and  many  receive,  and  many  fell  dead 
under  his  hand.  Two  horses  were  killed  under  him,  and  he 
took  a  third  at  time  of  need,  so  that  he  fell  not  to  the  ground  ; 
and  he  lost  not  a  drop  of  blood.  But  whatever  any  one  did, 
and  whoever  lived  or  died,  this  is  certain,  that  William  con- 
quered, and  that  many  of  the  English  fled  from  the  field,  and 
many  died  on  the  spot.  Then  he  returned  thanks  to  God, 
and  in  his  pride  ordered  his  standard  to  be  brought  and  set 
up  on  high  where  the  English  standard  had  stood  ;  and  that 
was  the  signal  of  his  having  conquered  and  beaten  down  the 
foe.  And  he  ordered  his  tent  to  be  raised  on  the  spot  among 
the  dead,  and  had  his  meat  brought  thither,  and  his  supper 
prepared  there. 

"  Then  he  took  off  his  armor  ;  and  the  barons  and  knights, 
pages  and  squires,  came  when  he  had  unstrung  his  shield ; 
and  they  took  the  helmet  from  his  head,  and  the  hauberk 
from  his  back,  and  saw  the  heavy  blows  upon  his  shield,  and 
how  his  helmet  was  dinted  in.  And  all  greatly  wondered, 
and  said,  'Such  a  baron  never  bestrode  war-horse,  or  dealt 
such  blows,  or  did  such  feats  of  arms ;  neither  has  there 
been  on  earth  such  a  knight  since  Rollant  and  Olivier.' 

"Thus  they  lauded  and  extolled  him  greatly,  and  rejoiced 
in  what  they  saw;  but  grieving  also  for  their  friends  who 
were  slain  in  the  battle.  And  the  duke  stood  meanwhile 
among  them  of  noble  stature  and  mien  ;  and  rendered  thanks 
to  the  King  of  Glory,  through  whom  he  had  the  victory ;  and 
thanked  the  knights  around  him,  mourning  also  frequently 
for  the  dead.  And  he  ate  and  drank  among  the  dead,  and 
made  his  bed  that  night  upon  the  field. 

"The  morrow  was  Sunday;  and  those  who  had  slept  upon 
the  field  of  battle,  keeping  watch  around,  and  suffering  great 
fatigue,  bestirred  themselves  at  break  of  day,  and  sought  out 
and  buried  such  of  the  bodies  of  their  dead  friends  as  they 
might  find.     The  noble  ladies  of  the  land  also  came,  some  to 


1066]  BATTLE   OF   HASTINGS  21 3 

seek  their  husbands,  and  others  their  fathers,  sons,  or  brothers. 
They  bore  the  bodies  to  their  villages,  and  interred  them  at 
the  churches ;  and  the  clerks  and  priests  of  the  country  were 
ready,  and  at  the  request  of  their  friends  took  the  bodies  that 
were  found  and  prepared  graves  and  laid  them  therein. 

"  King  Harold  was  carried  and  buried  at  Varham ;  but  I 
know  not  who  it  was  that  bore  him  thither,  neither  do  I  know 
who  buried  him.  Many  remained  on  the  field,  and  many  had 
fled  in  the  night." 

Such  is  a  Norman  account  of  the  battle  of  Hastings,  which 
does  full  justice  to  the  valor  of  the  Saxons,  as  well  as  to  the 
skill  and  bravery  of  the  victors.  It  is  indeed  evident  that 
the  loss  of  the  battle  to  the  English  was  owing  to  the  wound 
which  Harold  received  in  the  afternoon,  and  which  must 
have  incapacitated  him  from  effective  command.  When  we 
remember  that  he  had  himself  just  won  the  battle  of  Stam- 
ford Bridge  over  Harald  Hardrada  by  the  maneuver  of  a 
feigned  flight,  it  is  impossible  to  suppose  that  he  could  be 
deceived  by  the  same  stratagem  on  the  part  of  the  Normans 
at  Hastings.  But  his  men,  when  deprived  of  his  control, 
would  very  naturally  be  led  by  their  inconsiderate  ardor  into 
the  pursuit  that  proved  so  fatal  to  them.  All  the  narratives 
of  the  battle,  however  much  they  may  vary  as  to  the  precise 
time  and  manner  of  Harold's  fall,  eulogize  the  generalship 
and  the  personal  prowess  which  he  displayed  until  the  fatal 
arrow  struck  him.  The  skill  with  which  he  had  posted  his 
army  was  proved,  both  by  the  slaughter  which  it  cost  the 
Normans  to  force  the  position,  and  also  by  the  desperate 
rally  which  some  of  the  Saxons  made,  after  the  battle,  in  the 
forest  in  the  rear,  in  which  they  cut  off  a  large  number  of 
the  pursuing  Normans.  This  circumstance  is  particularly 
mentioned  by  William  of  Poitiers,  the  Conqueror's  own  chap- 
lain. Indeed,  if  Harold,  or  either  of  his  brothers,  had  sur- 
vived, the  remains  of  the  English  army  might  have  formed 
again  in  the  wood,  and  could  at  least  have  effected  an  orderly 
retreat,  and  prolonged  the  war.  But  both  Gurth  and  Leof- 
wine,  and  all  the  bravest  thanes  of  Southern  England,  lay 
dead  on  Senlac,  around  their  fallen  king  and  the  fallen  stand- 
ard of  their  country.  The  exact  number  of  the  slain  on  the 
Saxon  side  is  unknown ;  but  we  read  that  on  the  side  of  the 


214  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1066 

victors,  out  of  sixty  thousand  men  who  had  been  engaged, 
no  less  than  a  fourth  perished ;  so  well  had  the  English  bill- 
men  "  plied  the  ghastly  blow,"  and  so  sternly  had  the  Saxon 
battle-ax  cloven  Norman  casque  and  mail.1  The  old  histo- 
rian Daniel  justly  as  well  as  forcibly  remarks,  "Thus  was 
tried,  by  the  great  assize  of  God's  judgment  in  battle,  the 
right  of  power  between  the  English  and  Norman  nations ;  a 
battle  the  most  memorable  of  all  others,  and,  however  misera- 
bly lost,  yet  most  nobly  fought  on  the  part  of  England." 

Many  a  pathetic  legend  was  told  in  after-years  respecting 
the  discovery  and  the  burial  of  the  corpse  of  our  last  Saxon 
king.  The  main  circumstances,  though  they  seem  to  vary, 
are  perhaps  reconcilable.2  Two  of  the  monks  of  Waltham 
Abbey,  which  Harold  had  founded  a  little  time  before  his 
election  to  the  throne,  had  accompanied  him  to  the  battle. 
On  the  morning  after  the  slaughter  they  begged  and  gained 
permission  of  the  Conqueror  to  search  for  the  body  of  their 
benefactor.  The  Norman  soldiery  and  camp-followers  had 
stripped  and  gashed  the  slain ;  and  the  two  monks  vainly 
strove  to  recognize  from  among  the  mutilated  and  gory  heaps 
around  them  the  features  of  their  former  king.  They  sent 
for  Harold's  mistress,  Edith,  surnamed  "the  Fair"  and  the 
"Swan-necked,"  to  aid  them.  The  eye  of  love  proved  keener 
than  the  eye  of  gratitude,  and  the  Saxon  lady,  even  in  that 
Aceldama,  knew  her  Harold. 

The  king's  mother  now  sought  the  victorious  Norman,  and 
begged  the  dead  body  of  her  son.  But  William  at  first 
answered  in  his  wrath,  and  in  the  hardness  of  his  heart, 
that  a  man  who  had  been  false  to  his  word  and  his  religion 
should  have  no  other  sepulcher  than  the  sand  of  the  shore. 
He  added,  with  a  sneer,  "  Harold  mounted  guard  on  the  coast 
while  he  was  alive;  he  may  continue  his  guard  now  he  is 
dead."  The  taunt  was  an  unintentional  eulogy  ;  and  a  grave 
washed  by  the  spray  of  the  Sussex  waves  would  have  been 
the  noblest  burial-place  for  the  martyr  of  Saxon  freedom. 
But  Harold's  mother  was  urgent  in  her  lamentations  and  her 
prayers ;  the  Conqueror  relented ;  like  Achilles,  he  gave  up 
the  dead  body  of  his  fallen  foe  to  a  parent's  supplications ; 
and  the  remains  of  King  Harold  were  deposited  with  regal 
honors  in  Waltham  Abbey. 


1066]  BATTLE   OF   HASTINGS  215 

On  Christmas  day  of  the  same  year,  William  the  Con- 
queror was  crowned  at  London  king  of  England. 

Notes 

1  The  Conqueror's  chaplain  calls  the  Saxon  battle-axes  "  saevissimas 
secures." 

2  See  them  collected  in  Lingard,  vol.  i.,  p.  452  et  seq.;  Thierry,  vol.  i., 
p.  299;  Sharon  Turner,  vol.  i.,  p.  82;  and  "  Histoire  de  Normandie"  par 
Lieguet,  p.  242. 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Hastings, 
1066,  and  Joan  of  Arc's  Victory  at  Orleans,  1429 

1066  to  1087.  Reign  of  William  the  Conqueror.  Frequent 
risings  of  the  English  against  him,  which  are  quelled  with 
merciless  rigor. 

1096.    The  first  crusade. 

1 1 12.  Commencement  of  the  disputes  about  investitures 
between  the  emperors  and  the  popes. 

1 140.  Foundation  of  the  city  of  Liibeck,  whence  originated 
the  Hanseatic  League.  Commencement  of  the  feuds  in  Italy 
between  the  Guelphs  and  Ghibellines. 

1 146.    The  second  crusade. 

1 1 54.  Henry  II.  becomes  king  of  England.  Under  him 
Thomas  a  Becket  is  made  Archbishop  of  Canterbury :  the 
first  instance  of  any  man  of  the  Saxon  race  being  raised  to 
high  office  in  Church  or  State  since  the  Conquest. 

1 1 70.  Strongbow,  Earl  of  Pembroke,  lands  with  an  English 
army  in  Ireland. 

1 189.  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion  becomes  king  of  England. 
He  and  King  Philip  Augustus  of  France  join  in  the  third 
crusade. 

1 199  to  1204.  On  the  death  of  King  Richard,  his  brother 
John  claims  and  makes  himself  master  of  England  and  Nor- 
mandy and  the  other  large  Continental  possessions  of  the 
early  Plantagenet  princes.  Philip  Augustus  asserts  the  cause 
of  Prince  Arthur,  John's  nephew,  against  him.  Arthur  is 
murdered,  but  the  French  king  continues  the  war  against 
John,  and  conquers  from  him  Normandy,  Brittany,  Anjou, 
Maine,  Touraine,  and  Poitiers. 

12 1 5.    The  barons,  the  freeholders,  the  citizens,  and  the 


2l6  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1066 

yeomen  of  England  rise  against  the  tyranny  of  John  and  his 
foreign  favorites.  They  compel  him  to  sign  Magna  Charta. 
This  is  the  commencement  of  our  nationality ;  for  our  history 
from  this  time  forth  is  the  history  of  a  national  life,  then 
complete,  and  still  in  being.  All  English  history  before  this 
period  is  a  mere  history  of  elements,  of  their  collisions,  and 
of  the  processes  of  their  fusion.  For  upward  of  a  century 
after  the  Conquest,  Anglo-Norman  and  Anglo-Saxon  had 
kept  aloof  from  each  other  :  the  one  in  haughty  scorn,  the 
other  in  sullen  abhorrence.  They  were  two  peoples,  though 
living  in  the  same  land.  It  is  not  until  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, the  period  of  the  reigns  of  John  and  his  son  and  grand- 
son, that  we  can  perceive  the  existence  of  any  feeling  of 
common  patriotism  among  them.  But  in  studying  the  his- 
tory of  these  reigns,  we  read  of  the  old  dissensions  no  longer. 
The  Saxon  no  more  appears  in  civil  war  against  the  Norman ; 
the  Norman  no  longer  scorns  the  language  of  the  Saxon,  or 
refuses  to  bear  together  with  him  the  name  of  Englishman. 
No  part  of  the  community  think  themselves  foreigners  to 
another  part.  They  feel  that  they  are  all  one  people,  and 
they  have  learned  to  unite  their  efforts  for  the  common  pur- 
pose of  protecting  the  rights  and  promoting  the  welfare  of 
all.  The  fortunate  loss  of  the  Duchy  of  Normandy  in  John's 
reign  greatly  promoted  these  new  feelings.  Thenceforth  our 
barons'  only  homes  were  in  England.  One  language  had, 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  III.,  become  the  language  of  the  land; 
and  that,  also,  had  then  assumed  the  form  in  which  we  still 
possess  it.  One  law,  in  the  eye  of  which  all  freemen  are 
equal  without  distinction  of  race,  was  modeled,  and  steadily 
enforced,  and  still  continues  to  form  the  groundwork  of  our 
judicial  system. 

1273.    Rudolph  of  Hapsburg  chosen  emperor  of  Germany. 

1283.    Edward  I.  conquers  Wales. 

1346.  Edward  III.  invades  France,  and  gains  the  battle  of 
Cressy. 

1356.    Battle  of  Poitiers. 

1360.  Treaty  of  Bretigny  between  England  and  France. 
By  it  Edward  III.  renounces  his  pretensions  to  the  French 
crown.  The  treaty  is  ill  kept,  and  indecisive  hostilities  con- 
tinue between  the  forces  of  the  two  countries. 


1066]  BATTLE   OF   HASTINGS  217 

1414.  Henry  V.  of  England  claims  the  crown  of  France, 
and  resolves  to  invade  and  conquer  that  kingdom.  At  this 
time  France  was  in  the  most  deplorable  state  of  weakness 
and  suffering,  from  the  factions  that  raged  among  her  nobil- 
ity, and  from  the  cruel  oppressions  which  the  rival  nobles 
practised  on  the  mass  of  the  community.  "The  people  were 
exhausted  by  taxes,  civil  wars,  and  military  executions ;  and 
they  had  fallen  into  that  worst  of  all  states  of  mind,  when 
the  independence  of  one's  country  is  thought  no  longer  a 
paramount  and  sacred  object.  '  What  can  the  English  do  to 
us  worse  than  the  things  we  suffer  at  the  hands  of  our  own 
princes  ? '  was  a  common  exclamation  among  the  poor  people 
of  France." 

141 5.  Henry  invades  France,  takes  Harfleur,  and  wins  the 
great  battle  of  Agincourt. 

141 7  to  1419.  Henry  conquers  Normandy.  The  French 
dauphin  assassinates  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  the  most  power- 
ful of  the  French  nobles,  at  Montereau.  The  successor  of 
the  murdered  duke  becomes  the  active  ally  of  the  English. 

1420.  The  Treaty  of  Troyes  is  concluded  between  Henry 
V.  of  England  and  Charles  VI.  of  France,  and  Philip,  Duke 
of  Burgundy.  By  this  treaty  it  was  stipulated  that  Henry 
should  marry  the  Princess  Catherine  of  France ;  that  King 
Charles,  during  his  lifetime,  should  keep  the  title  and  dignity 
of  king  of  France,  but  that  Henry  should  succeed  him,  and 
should  at  once  be  entrusted  with  the  administration  of  the  gov- 
ernment, and  that  the  French  crown  should  descend  to  Henry's 
heirs ;  that  France  and  England  should  forever  be  united 
under  one  king,  but  should  still  retain  their  several  usages, 
customs,  and  privileges ;  that  all  the  princes,  peers,  vassals, 
and  communities  of  France  should  swear  allegiance  to  Henry 
as  their  future  king,  and  should  pay  him  present  obedience 
as  regent ;  that  Henry  should  unite  his  arms  to  those  of  King 
Charles  and  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  in  order  to  subdue  the 
adherents  of  Charles,  the  pretended  dauphin ;  and  that  these 
three  princes  should  make  no  truce  or  peace  with  the  dauphin 
but  by  the  common  consent  of  all  three. 

142 1.  Henry  V.  gains  several  victories  over  the  French, 
who  refuse  to  acknowledge  the  Treaty  of  Troyes.  His  son, 
afterwards  Henry  VI.,  is  born. 


2l8  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1066 

1422.  Henry  V.  and  Charles  VI.  of  France  die.  Henry 
VI.  is  proclaimed  at  Paris  king  of  England  and  France. 
The  followers  of  the  French  dauphin  proclaim  him  Charles 
VII.,  king  of  France.  The  Duke  of  Bedford,  the  English 
regent  in  France,  defeats  the  army  of  the  dauphin  at  Crevant. 

1424.  The  Duke  of  Bedford  gains  the  great  victory  of 
Verneuil,  over  the  French  partisans  of  the  dauphin  and  their 
Scotch  auxiliaries. 

1428.   The  English  begin  the  siege  of  Orleans. 


1429]  RELIEF   OF   ORLEANS  219 


CHAPTER    IX 

Joan  of  Arc's  Victory  over  the  English  at  Orleans,  1429 

"  The  eyes  of  all  Europe  were  turned  towards  this  scene ;  where,  it  was 
reasonably  supposed,  the  French  were  to  make  their  last  stand  for  main- 
taining the  independence  of  their  monarchy  and  the  rights  of  their  sov- 
ereign." —  Hume. 

WHEN,  after  their  victory  at  Salamis,  the  generals  of 
the  various  Greek  states  voted  the  prizes  for  dis- 
tinguished individual  merit,  each  assigned  the  first 
place  of  excellence  to  himself,  but  they  all  concurred  in  giv- 
ing their  second  votes  to  Themistocles.  This  was  looked  on 
as  a  decisive  proof  that  Themistocles  ought  to  be  ranked  first 
of  all.  If  we  were  to  endeavor,  by  a  similar  test,  to  ascertain 
which  European  nation  has  contributed  the  most  to  the  prog- 
ress of  European  civilization,  we  should  find  Italy,  Germany, 
England,  and  Spain  each  claiming  the  first  degree,  but  each 
also  naming  France  as  clearly  next  in  merit.  It  is  impossible 
to  deny  her  paramount  importance  in  history.  Besides  the 
formidable  part  that  she  has  for  nearly  three  centuries  played, 
as  the  Bellona  of  the  European  commonwealth  of  states,  her 
influence  during  all  this  period  over  the  arts,  the  literature, 
the  manners,  and  the  feelings  of  mankind,  has  been  such  as 
to  make  the  crisis  of  her  earlier  fortunes  a  point  of  world-wide 
interest ;  and  it  may  be  asserted  without  exaggeration  that 
the  future  career  of  every  nation  was  involved  in  the  result 
of  the  struggle  by  which  the  unconscious  heroine  of  France, 
in  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century,  rescued  her  country 
from  becoming  a  second  Ireland  under  the  yoke  of  the  tri- 
umphant English. 

Seldom  has  the  extinction  of  a  nation's  independence  ap- 
peared more  inevitable  than  was  the  case  in  France,  when 
the  English  invaders  completed  their  lines  round  Orleans, 
four  hundred  and  twenty-three  years  ago.     A  series  of  dread- 


220  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1429 

ful  defeats  had  thinned  the  chivalry  of  France,  and  daunted 
the  spirits  of  her  soldiers.  A  foreign  king  had  been  pro- 
claimed in  her  capital ;  and  foreign  armies  of  the  bravest 
veterans,  and  led  by  the  ablest  captains  then  known  in  the 
world,  occupied  the  fairest  portions  of  her  territory.  Worse 
to  her  even  than  the  fierceness  and  the  strength  of  her  foes 
were  the  factions,  the  vices,  and  the  crimes  of  her  own  chil- 
dren. Her  native  prince  was  a  dissolute  trifler,  stained  with 
the  assassination  of  the  most  powerful  noble  of  the  land, 
whose  son,  in  revenge,  had  leagued  himself  with  the  enemy. 
Many  more  of  her  nobility,  many  of  her  prelates,  her  magis- 
trates, and  rulers,  had  sworn  fealty  to  the  English  king.  The 
condition  of  the  peasantry,  amid  the  general  prevalence  of 
anarchy  and  brigandage  which  were  added  to  the  customary 
devastations  of  contending  armies,  was  wretched  beyond  the 
power  of  language  to  describe.  The  sense  of  terror  and 
suffering  seemed  to  have  extended  itself  even  to  the  brute 
creation. 

"  In  sooth,  the  estate  of  France  was  then  most  miserable. 
There  appeared  nothing  but  a  horrible  face,  confusion,  pov- 
erty, desolation,  solitarinesse,  and  feare.  The  lean  and  bare 
labourers  in  the  country  did  terrifie  even  theeves  themselves, 
who  had  nothing  left  them  to  spoile  but  the  carkasses  of 
these  poore  miserable  creatures,  wandering  up  and  down  like 
ghosts  drawne  out  of  their  graves.  The  least  farmes  and 
hamlets  were  fortified  by  these  robbers,  English,  Bourgueg- 
nons,  and  French,  every  one  striving  to  do  his  worst;  all  men- 
of-war  were  well  agreed  to  spoile  the  countryman  and  merchant. 
Even  the  cattell,  accustomed  to  the  larume  bell,  the  signe  of  the 
enemy  s  approach,  would  run  home  of  themselves  without  any 
guide,  by  this  accustomed  misery."     [De  Serres.] 

In  the  autumn  of  1428,  the  English,  who  were  already 
masters  of  all  France  north  of  the  Loire,  prepared  their 
forces  for  the  conquest  of  the  southern  provinces,  which  yet 
adhered  to  the  cause  of  the  dauphin.  The  city  of  Orleans, 
on  the  banks  of  that  river,  was  looked  upon  as  the  last 
stronghold  of  the  French  national  party.  If  the  English 
could  once  obtain  possession  of  it,  their  victorious  progress 
through  the  residue  of  the  kingdom  seemed  free  from  any 
serious  obstacle.     Accordingly,  the  Earl  of  Salisbury,  one  of 


1429]  RELIEF    OF   ORLEANS  221 

the  bravest  and  most  experienced  of  the  English  generals, 
who  had  been  trained  under  Henry  V.,  marched  to  the  attack 
of  the  all-important  city;  and,  after  reducing  several  places  of 
inferior  consequence  in  the  neighborhood,  appeared  with  his 
army  before  its  walls  on  the  12th  of  October,  1428. 

The  city  of  Orleans  itself  was  on  the  north  side  of  the 
Loire,  but  its  suburbs  extended  far  on  the  southern  side,  and 
a  strong  bridge  connected  them  with  the  town.  A  fortifica- 
tion, which  in  modern  military  phrase  would  be  termed  a 
tete-du-pont,  defended  the  bridge-head  on  the  southern  side, 
and  two  towers,  called  the  Tourelles,  were  built  on  the  bridge 
itself,  where  it  rested  on  an  island  at  a  little  distance  from 
the  tete-du-pont.  Indeed,  the  solid  masonry  of  the  bridge 
terminated  at  the  Tourelles,  and  the  communication  thence 
with  the  tete-du-pont  on  the  southern  shore  was  by  means  of 
a  drawbridge.  The  Tourelles  and  the  tete-du-pont  formed 
together  a  strong  fortified  post,  capable  of  containing  a  gar- 
rison of  considerable  strength:  and  so  long  as  this  was  in 
possession  of  the  Orleannais,  they  could  communicate  freely 
with  the  southern  provinces,  the  inhabitants  of  which,  like  the 
Orleannais  themselves,  supported  the  cause  of  their  dauphin 
against  the  foreigners.  Lord  Salisbury  rightly  judged  the 
capture  of  the  Tourelles  to  be  the  most  material  step  towards 
the  reduction  of  the  city  itself.  Accordingly  he  directed  his 
principal  operations  against  this  post,  and,  after  some  very 
severe  repulses,  he  carried  the  Tourelles  by  storm,  on  the  23d 
of  October.  The  French,  however,  broke  down  the  part  of 
the  bridge  which  was  nearest  to  the  north  bank,  and  thus 
rendered  a  direct  assault  from  the  Tourelles  upon  the  city 
impossible.  But  the  possession  of  this  post  enabled  the  Eng- 
lish to  distress  the  town  greatly  by  a  battery  of  cannon  which 
they  planted  there,  and  which  commanded  some  of  the  prin- 
cipal streets. 

It  has  been  observed  by  Hume  that  this  is  the  first  siege 
in  which  any  important  use  appears  to  have  been  made  of 
artillery.  And  even  at  Orleans  both  besiegers  and  besieged 
seem  to  have  employed  their  cannons  more  as  instruments  of 
destruction  against  their  enemy's  men,  than  as  engines  of 
demolition  against  their  enemy's  walls  and  works.  The 
efficacy  of  cannon  in  breaching  solid  masonry  was  taught 


222  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1429 

Europe  by  the  Turks,  a  few  years  afterwards,  at  the  memora- 
ble siege  of  Constantinople.  In  our  French  wars,  as  in  the 
wars  of  the  classic  nations,  famine  was  looked  on  as  the 
surest  weapon  to  compel  the  submission  of  a  well-walled 
town ;  and  the  great  object  of  the  besiegers  was  to  effect  a 
complete  circumvallation.  The  great  ambit  of  the  walls  of 
Orleans,  and  the  facilities  which  the  river  gave  for  obtaining 
succor  and  supplies,  rendered  the  capture  of  the  place  by 
this  process  a  matter  of  great  difficulty.  Nevertheless,  Lord 
Salisbury,  and  Lord  Suffolk,  who  succeeded  him  in  command 
of  the  English  after  his  death  by  a  cannon-ball,  carried  on 
the  necessary  works  with  great  skill  and  resolution.  Six 
strongly  fortified  posts,  called  bastilles,  were  formed  at  cer- 
tain intervals  round  the  town ;  and  the  purpose  of  the  English 
engineers  was  to  draw  strong  lines  between  them.  During 
the  winter  little  progress  was  made  with  the  entrenchments, 
but  when  the  spring  of  1429  came,  the  English  resumed  their 
works  with  activity ;  the  communications  between  the  city 
and  the  country  became  more  difficult,  and  the  approach  of 
want  began  already  to  be  felt  in  Orleans. 

The  besieging  force  also  fared  hardly  for  stores  and  provi- 
sions, until  relieved  by  the  effects  of  a  brilliant  victory  which 
Sir  John  Fastolfe,  one  of  the  best  English  generals,  gained  at 
Rouvrai,  near  Orleans,  a  few  days  after  Ash  Wednesday,  1429. 
With  only  sixteen  hundred  fighting  men,  Sir  John  completely 
defeated  an  army  of  French  and  Scots,  four  thousand  strong, 
which  had  been  collected  for  the  purpose  of  aiding  the  Or- 
leannais  and  harassing  the  besiegers.  After  this  encounter, 
which  seemed  decisively  to  confirm  the  superiority  of  the 
English  in  battle  over  their  adversaries,  Fastolfe  escorted  large 
supplies  of  stores  and  food  to  Suffolk's  camp,  and  the  spirits 
of  the  English  rose  to  the  highest  pitch  at  the  prospect  of  the 
speedy  capture  of  the  city  before  them,  and  the  consequent 
subjection  of  all  France  beneath  their  arms. 

The  Orleannais  now  in  their  distress  offered  to  surrender  the 
city  into  the  hands  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  who,  though 
the  ally  of  the  English,  was  yet  one  of  their  native  princes. 
The  Regent  Bedford  refused  these  terms,  and  the  speedy 
submission  of  the  city  to  the  English  seemed  inevitable.  The 
Dauphin  Charles,  who  was  now  at  Chinon  with  his  remnant 


1429]  RELIEF   OF   ORLEANS  223 

of  a  court,  despaired  of  maintaining  any  longer  the  struggle 
for  his  crown ;  and  was  only  prevented  from  abandoning  the 
country  by  the  more  masculine  spirits  of  his  mistress  and  his 
queen.  Yet  neither  they,  nor  the  boldest  of  Charles's  captains, 
could  have  shown  him  where  to  find  resources  for  prolonging 
the  war ;  and  least  of  all  could  any  human  skill  have  predicted 
the  quarter  whence  rescue  was  to  come  to  Orleans  and  to 
France. 

In  the  village  of  Domr6my,  on  the  borders  of  Lorraine, 
there  was  a  poor  peasant  of  the  name  of  Jacques  d'Arc,  re- 
spected in  his  station  of  life,  and  who  had  reared  a  family  in 
virtuous  habits  and  in  the  practise  of  the  strictest  devotion. 
His  eldest  daughter  was  named  by  her  parents  Jeannette,  but 
she  was  called  Jeanne  by  the  French,  which  was  Latinized 
into  Johanna,  and  Anglicized  into  Joan. 

At  the  time  when  Joan  first  attracted  attention  she  was 
about  eighteen  years  of  age.  She  was  naturally  of  a  suscep- 
tible disposition,  which  diligent  attention  to  the  legends  of 
saints  and  tales  of  fairies,  aided  by  the  dreamy  loneliness  of 
her  life  while  tending  her  father's  flocks,1  had  made  peculiarly 
prone  to  enthusiastic  fervor.  At  the  same  time  she  was  em- 
inent for  piety  and  purity  of  soul,  and  for  her  compassionate 
gentleness  to  the  sick  and  the  distressed. 

The  district  where  she  dwelt  had  escaped  comparatively 
free  from  the  ravages  of  war,  but  the  approach  of  roving  bands 
of  Burgundian  or  English  troops  frequently  spread  terror 
through  Domremy.  Once  the  village  had  been  plundered  by 
some  of  these  marauders,  and  Joan  and  her  family  had  been 
driven  from  their  home,  and  forced  to  seek  refuge  for  a  time 
at  Neuf  chateau.  The  peasantry  in  Domremy  were  principally 
attached  to  the  House  of  Orleans  and  the  dauphin ;  and  all 
the  miseries  which  France  endured  were  there  imputed  to  the 
Burgundian  faction  and  their  allies,  the  English,  who  were 
seeking  to  enslave  unhappy  France. 

Thus  from  infancy  to  girlhood  Joan  had  heard  continually 
of  the  woes  of  the  war,  and  she  had  herself  witnessed  some 
of  the  wretchedness  that  it  caused.  A  feeling  of  intense 
patriotism  grew  in  her  with  her  growth.  The  deliverance  of 
France  from  the  English  was  the  subject  of  her  reveries  by 
day  and  her  dreams  by  night.     Blended  with  these  aspira- 


224  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1429 

tions  were  recollections  of  the  miraculous  interpositions  of 
Heaven  in  favor  of  the  oppressed,  which  she  had  learned 
from  the  legends  of  her  church.  Her  faith  was  undoubting ; 
her  prayers  were  fervent.  "  She  feared  no  danger,  for  she 
felt  no  sin " ;  and  at  length  she  believed  herself  to  have 
received  the  supernatural  inspiration  which  she  sought. 

According  to  her  own  narrative,  delivered  by  her  to  her 
merciless  inquisitors  in  the  time  of  her  captivity  and  approach- 
ing death,  she  was  about  thirteen  years  old  when  her  revela- 
tions commenced.  Her  own  words  describe  them  best :  "  At 
the  age  of  thirteen,  a  voice  from  God  came  near  to  her  to 
help  her  in  ruling  herself,  and  that  voice  came  to  her  about 
the  hour  of  noon,  in  summer-time,  while  she  was  in  her  father's 
garden.  And  she  had  fasted  the  day  before.  And  she  heard 
the  voice  on  her  right,  in  the  direction  of  the  church ;  and 
when  she  heard  the  voice  she  also  saw  a  bright  light.  After- 
wards, St.  Michael  and  St.  Margaret  and  St.  Catherine 
appeared  to  her.  They  were  always  in  a  halo  of  glory ;  she 
could  see  that  their  heads  were  crowned  with  jewels;  and  she 
heard  their  voices,  which  were  sweet  and  mild.  She  did  not 
distinguish  their  arms  or  limbs.  She  heard  them  more  fre- 
quently than  she  saw  them ;  and  the  usual  time  when  sh  ■ 
heard  them  was  wherx  ue  church  bells  were  sounding  fo. 
prayer.  And  if  s^  -,  a  few  ^he  woods  when  she  heard  them, 
she  could  plainly  jidred  fig/ieir  voices  drawing  near  to  hfer. 
When  she  thought  :"°.nch  a^discerned  the  heavenly  voices, 
she  knelt  down,  anc  I  fr~d  herself  to  the  ground.  Their 
presence  gladdened  her  even  to  tears  ;  and  after  they  departed 
she  wept  because  they  had  not  taken  her  with  them  back  to 
Paradise.  They  always  spoke  soothingly  to  her.  They  told 
her  that  France  would  be  saved,  and  that  she  was  to  save  it." 
Such  were  the  visions  and  the  voices  that  moved  the  spirit  of 
the  girl  of  thirteen ;  and  as  she  grew  older  they  became  more 
frequent  and  more  clear.  At  last  the  tidings  of  the  siege  of 
Orleans  reached  Domremy.  Joan  heard  her  parents  and 
neighbors  talk  of  the  sufferings  of  its  population,  of  the  ruin 
which  its  capture  would  bring  on  their  lawful  sovereign,  and 
of  the  distress  of  the  dauphin  and  his  court.  Joan's  heart 
was  sorely  troubled  at  the  thought  of  the  fate  of  Orleans ; 
and    her  voices  now  ordered  her  to  leave   her  home,    and 


1429]  RELIEF   OF   ORLEANS  225 

warned  her  that  she  was  the  instrument  chosen  by  Heaven 
for  driving  away  the  English  from  that  city,  and  for  taking 
the  dauphin  to  be  anointed  king  at  Rheims.  At  length  she 
informed  her  parents  of  her  divine  mission,  and  told  them 
that  she  must  go  to  the  Sire  de  Baudricourt,  who  commanded 
at  Vaucouleurs,  and  who  was  the  appointed  person  to  bring 
her  into  the  presence  of  the  king,  whom  she  was  to  save. 
Neither  the  anger  nor  the  grief  of  her  parents,  who  said  that 
they  would  rather  see  her  drowned  than  exposed  to  the  con- 
tamination of  the  camp,  could  move  her  from  her  purpose. 
One  of  her  uncles  consented  to  take  her  to  Vaucouleurs,  where 
De  Baudricourt  at  first  thought  her  mad,  and  derided  her ; 
but  by  degrees  was  led  to  believe,  if  not  in  her  inspiration,  at 
least  in  her  enthusiasm  and  in  its  possible  utility  to  the 
dauphin's  cause. 

The  inhabitants  of  Vaucouleurs  were  completely  won  over 
to  her  side  by  the  piety  and  devoutness  which  she  displayed, 
and  by  her  firm  assurance  in  the  truth  of  her  mission.  She 
told  them  that  it  was  God's  will  that  she  should  go  to  the 
king,  and  that  no  one  but  her  could  save  the  kingdom  of 
France.  She  said  that  she  herself  would  rather  remain  with 
h^r  poor  mother  and  spin;   but  the  Lord  had  ordered  her 

rth.  The  fame  of  "The  Maid,'\esi  she  was  termed,  the 
renown  of  her  holiness  and  of  b  had  a  *n>  spread  far  and 
wir1^.  Baudricourt  sent  her  wit't  the  app  <°  Chinon,  where 
the  Dauphin  Charles  was  dallyii^rjpg  fr-  urae.  Her  voices 
had  bidden  her  assume  the  arms  an  -  apparel  of  a  knight; 
and  the  wealthiest  inhabitants  of  Vaucouleurs  had  vied  with 
each  other  in  equipping  her  with  war-horse,  armor,  and  sword. 
On  reaching  Chinon,  she  was,  after  some  delay,  admitted  into 
the  presence  of  the  dauphin.  Charles  designedly  dressed 
himself  far  less  richly  than  many  of  his  courtiers  were 
apparelled,  and  mingled  with  them,  when  Joan  was  intro- 
duced, in  order  to  see  if  the  Holy  Maid  would  address  her 
exhortations  to  the  wrong  person.  But  she  instantly  singled 
him  out,  and,  kneeling  before  him,  said,  "  Most  noble  dauphin, 
the  King  of  Heaven  announces  to  you  by  me  that  you  shall 
be  anointed  and  crowned  king  in  the  city  of  Rheims,  and  that 
you  shall  be  his  vicegerent  in  France."  His  features  may 
probably  have  been  seen  by  her  previously  in  portraits,  or 


226  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1429 

have  been  described  to  her  by  others;  but  she  herself  believed 
that  her  voices  inspired  her  when  she  addressed  the  king ; 
and  the  report  soon  spread  abroad  that  the  Holy  Maid  had 
found  the  king  by  a  miracle ;  and  this,  with  many  other 
similar  rumors,  augmented  the  renown  and  influence  that  she 
now  rapidly  acquired. 

The  state  of  public  feeling  in  France  was  now  favorable  to 
an  enthusiastic  belief  in  divine  interposition  in  favor  of  the 
party  that  had  hitherto  been  unsuccessful  and  oppressed. 
The  humiliations  which  had  befallen  the  French  royal  family 
and  nobility  were  looked  on  as  the  just  judgments  of  God 
upon  them  for  their  vice  and  impiety.  The  misfortunes  that 
had  come  upon  France  as  a  nation  were  believed  to  have  been 
drawn  down  by  national  sins.  The  English,  who  had  been 
the  instruments  of  Heaven's  wrath  against  France,  seemed 
now  by  their  pride  and  cruelty  to  be  fitting  objects  of  it  them- 
selves. France  in  that  age  was  a  profoundly  religious  country. 
There  was  ignorance,  there  was  superstition,  there  was  bigotry ; 
but  there  was  faith  —  a  faith  that  itself  worked  true  miracles, 
even  while  it  believed  in  unreal  ones.  At  this  time,  also,  one 
of  those  devotional  movements  began  among  the  clergy  in 
France  which  from  time  to  time  occur  in  national  churches 
without  it  being  possible  for  the  historian  to  assign  any  ade- 
quate human  cause  for  their  immediate  date  or  extension. 
Numberless  friars  and  priests  traversed  the  rural  districts  and 
towns  of  France,  preaching  to  the  people  that  they  must  seek 
from  Heaven  a  deliverance  from  the  pillages  of  the  soldiery 
and  the  insolence  of  the  foreign  oppressors.  The  idea  of  a 
Providence  that  works  only  by  general  laws  was  wholly  alien 
to  the  feelings  of  the  age.  Every  political  event,  as  well  as 
every  natural  phenomenon,  was  believed  to  be  the  immediate 
result  of  a  special  mandate  of  God.  This  led  to  the  belief 
that  his  holy  angels  and  saints  were  constantly  employed  in 
executing  his  commands  and  mingling  in  the  affairs  of  men. 
The  church  encouraged  these  feelings,  and  at  the  same  time 
sanctioned  the  concurrent  popular  belief  that  hosts  of  evil 
spirits  were  also  ever  actively  interposing  in  the  current  of 
earthly  events,  with  whom  sorcerers  and  wizards  could  league 
themselves  and  thereby  obtain  the  exercise  of  supernatural 
power. 


JOAN  OF  ARC  LISTENING  TO  THE  VOICES. 

Photogravure  from  a  painting  by  Wagrez. 


1429]  RELIEF   OF   ORLEANS  227 

Thus  all  things  favored  the  influence  which  Joan  obtained 
both  over  friends  and  foes.  The  French  nation,  as  well  as 
the  English  and  the  Burgundians,  readily  admitted  that  super- 
human beings  inspired  her :  the  only  question  was,  whether 
these  beings  were  good  or  evil  angels ;  whether  she  brought 
with  her  "  airs  from  heaven,  or  blasts  from  hell."  This  ques- 
tion seemed  to  her  countrymen  to  be  decisively  settled  in  her 
favor  by  the  austere  sanctity  of  her  life,  by  the  holiness  of 
her  conversation,  but,  still  more,  by  her  exemplary  attention 
to  all  the  services  and  rites  of  the  church.  The  dauphin  at 
first  feared  the  injury  that  might  be  done  to  his  cause  if  he 
had  laid  himself  open  to  the  charge  of  having  leagued  him- 
self with  a  sorceress.  Every  imaginable  test,  therefore,  was 
resorted  to  in  order  to  set  Joan's  orthodoxy  and  purity  beyond 
suspicion.  At  last  Charles  and  his  advisers  felt  safe  in  accept- 
ing her  services  as  those  of  a  true  and  virtuous  daughter  of 
the  Holy  Church. 

It  is  indeed  probable  that  Charles  himself,  and  some  of  his 
counselors,  may  have  suspected  Joan  of  being  a  mere  enthu- 
siast ;  and  it  is  certain  that  Dunois,  and  others  of  the  best 
generals,  took  considerable  latitude  in  obeying  or  deviating 
from  the  military  orders  that  she  gave.  But  over  the  mass 
of  the  people  and  the  soldiery,  her  influence  was  unbounded. 
While  Charles  and  his  doctors  of  theology  and  court  ladies 
had  been  deliberating  as  to  recognizing  or  dismissing  the 
Maid,  a  considerable  period  had  passed  away,  during  which  a 
small  army,  the  last  gleanings,  as  it  seemed,  of  the  English 
sword,  had  been  assembled  at  Blois,  under  Dunois,  La  Hire, 
Xaintrailles,  and  other  chiefs,  who  to  their  natural  valor  were 
now  beginning  to  unite  the  wisdom  that  is  taught  by  mis- 
fortune. It  was  resolved  to  send  Joan  with  this  force  and  a 
convoy  of  provisions  to  Orleans.  The  distress  of  that  city 
had  now  become  urgent.  But  the  communication  with  the 
open  country  was  not  entirely  cut  off ;  the  Orleannais  had 
heard  of  the  Holy  Maid  whom  Providence  had  raised  up  for 
their  deliverance,  and  their  messengers  urgently  implored  the 
dauphin  to  send  her  to  them  without  delay. 

Joan  appeared  at  the  camp  at  Blois,  clad  in  a  new  suit  of 
brilliant  white  armor,  mounted  on  a  stately  black  war-horse, 
and  with  a  lance  in  her  right  hand,  which  she  had  learned  to 


228  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1429 

wield  with  skill  and  grace.  Her  head  was  unhelmeted;  so 
that  all  could  behold  her  fair  and  expressive  features,  her 
deep-set  and  earnest  eyes,  and  her  long  black  hair,  which  was 
parted  across  her  forehead  and  bound  by  a  ribbon  behind  her 
back.  She  wore  at  her  side  a  small  battle-ax,  and  the  con- 
secrated sword,  marked  on  the  blade  with  five  crosses,  which 
had  at  her  bidding  been  taken  for  her  from  the  shrine  of  St. 
Catherine  at  Fierbois.  A  page  carried  her  banner,  which  she 
had  caused  to  be  made  and  embroidered  as  her  voices  enjoined. 
It  was  white  satin,  strewn  with  fleur-de-lis  ;  and  on  it  were  the 
words  "  Jhesus  Maria,"  and  the  representation  of  the  Saviour 
in  his  glory.  Joan  afterwards  generally  bore  her  banner  her- 
self in  battle;  she  said  that  though  she  loved  her  sword 
much,  she  loved  her  banner  forty  times  as  much ;  and  she 
loved  to  carry  it  because  it  could  not  kill  any  one. 

Thus  accoutered,  she  came  to  lead  the  troops  of  France,  who 
looked  with  soldierly  admiration  on  her  well-proportioned  and 
upright  figure,  the  skill  with  which  she  managed  her  war-horse, 
and  the  easy  grace  with  which  she  handled  her  weapons. 
Her  military  education  had  been  short,  but  she  had  availed 
herself  of  it  well.  She  had  also  the  good  sense  to  interfere 
little  with  the  maneuvers  of  the  troops,  leaving  those  things 
to  Dunois  and  others  whom  she  had  the  discernment  to  recog- 
nize as  the  best  officers  in  the  camp.  Her  tactics  in  action 
were  simple  enough.  As  she  herself  described  it,  "  I  used  to 
say  to  them,  '  Go  boldly  in  among  the  English,'  and  then  I 
used  to  go  boldly  in  myself."  Such,  as  she  told  her  inquisi- 
tors, was  the  only  spell  she  used ;  and  it  was  one  of  power. 
But  while  interfering  little  with  the  military  discipline  of  the 
troops,  in  all  matters  of  moral  discipline  she  was  inflexibly 
strict.  All  the  abandoned  followers  of  the  camp  were  driven 
away.  She  compelled  both  generals  and  soldiers  to  attend 
regularly  at  confessional.  Her  chaplain  and  other  priests 
marched  with  the  army  under  her  orders ;  and  at  every  halt 
an  altar  was  set  up  and  the  sacrament  administered.  No  oath 
or  foul  language  passed  without  punishment  or  censure. 
Even  the  roughest  and  most  hardened  veterans  obeyed  her. 
They  put  off  for  a  time  the  bestial  coarseness  which  had 
grown  on  them  during  a  life  of  bloodshed  and  rapine ;  they 
felt  that  they  must  go  forth  in  a  new  spirit  to  a  new  career, 


1429]  RELIEF   OF   ORLEANS  229 

and  acknowledged  the  beauty  of  the  holiness  in  which  the 
heaven-sent  Maid  was  leading  them  to  certain  victory. 

Joan  marched  from  Blois  on  the  25th  of  April  with  a  convoy 
of  provisions  for  Orleans,  accompanied  by  Dunois,  La  Hire, 
and  the  other  chief  captains  of  the  French ;  and  on  the  even- 
ing of  the  28th  they  approached  the  town.  In  the  words  of 
the  old  chronicler  Hall :  "  The  Englishmen,  perceiving  that 
they  within  could  not  long  continue  for  faute  of  vitaile  and 
pouder,  kepte  not  their  watche  so  diligently  as  thei  were 
accustomed,  nor  scoured  now  the  countrey  environed  as  thei 
before  had  ordained.  Whiche  negligence  the  citizens  shut  in 
perceiving,  sente  worde  thereof  to  the  French  captaines,  which 
with  Pucelle  in  the  dedde  tyme  of  the  nighte,  and  in  a  greate 
rayne  and  thundere,  with  all  their  vitaile  and  artillery  entered 
into  the  citie." 

When  it  was  day,  the  Maid  rode  in  solemn  procession 
through  the  city,  clad  in  complete  armor,  and  mounted  on  a 
white  horse.  Dunois  was  by  her  side,  and  all  the  bravest 
knights  of  her  army  and  of  the  garrison  followed  in  her  train. 
The  whole  population  thronged  around  her ;  and  men,  women, 
and  children  strove  to  touch  her  garments  or  her  banner  or 
her  charger.  They  poured  forth  blessings  on  her  whom  they 
already  considered  their  deliverer.  In  the  words  used  by  two 
of  them  afterwards  before  the  tribunal  which  reversed  the 
sentence,  but  could  not  restore  the  life,  of  the  Virgin-martyr 
of  France,  "  the  people  of  Orleans,  when  they  first  saw  her  in 
their  city,  thought  that  it  was  an  angel  from  heaven  that  had 
come  down  to  save  them."  Joan  spoke  gently  in  reply  to 
their  acclamations  and  addresses.  She  told  them  to  fear  God, 
and  trust  in  him  for  safety  from  the  fury  of  their  enemies. 
She  first  went  to  the  principal  church,  where  Te  Deum  was 
chanted ;  and  then  she  took  up  her  abode  in  the  house  of 
Jacques  Bourgier,  one  of  the  principal  citizens,  and  whose 
wife  was  a  matron  of  good  repute.  She  refused  to  attend  a 
splendid  banquet  which  had  been  provided  for  her,  and  passed 
nearly  all  her  time  in  prayer. 

When  it  was  known  by  the  English  that  the  Maid  was  in 
Orleans,  their  minds  were  not  less  occupied  about  her  than 
were  the  minds  of  those  in  the  city ;  but  it  was  in  a  very 
different  spirit.     The  English  believed  in  her  supernatural 


230  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1429 

mission  as  firmly  as  the  French  did ;  but  they  thought  her  a 
sorceress  who  had  come  to  overthrow  them  by  her  enchant- 
ments. An  old  prophecy,  which  told  that  a  damsel  from 
Lorraine  was  to  save  France,  had  long  been  current ;  and  it 
was  known  and  applied  to  Joan  by  foreigners  as  well  as  by 
the  natives.  For  months  the  English  had  heard  of  the  com- 
ing Maid ;  and  the  tales  of  miracles  which  she  was  said  to 
have  wrought  had  been  listened  to  by  the  rough  yeomen  of 
the  English  camp  with  anxious  curiosity  and  secret  awe.  She 
had  sent  a  herald  to  the  English  generals  before  she  marched 
for  Orleans ;  and  he  had  summoned  the  English  generals  in 
the  name  of  the  Most  High  to  give  up  to  the  Maid  who  was 
sent  by  Heaven  the  keys  of  the  French  cities  which  they  had 
wrongfully  taken ;  and  he  also  solemnly  adjured  the  English 
troops,  whether  archers,  or  men  of  the  companies  of  war,  or 
gentlemen,  or  others,  who  were  before  the  city  of  Orleans, 
to  depart  thence  to  their  homes,  under  peril  of  being  visited 
by  the  judgment  of  God.  On  her  arrival  in  Orleans,  Joan 
sent  another  similar  message  ;  but  the  English  scoffed  at  her 
from  their  towers,  and  threatened  to  burn  her  heralds.  She 
determined  before  she  shed  the  blood  of  the  besiegers,  to 
repeat  the  warning  with  her  own  voice ;  and  accordingly  she 
mounted  one  of  the  boulevards  of  the  town,  which  was  within 
hearing  of  the  Tourelles ;  and  thence  she  spoke  to  the  Eng- 
lish, and  bade  them  depart,  otherwise  they  would  meet  with 
shame  and  woe.  Sir  William  Gladsdale  (whom  the  French 
call  Glacidas)  commanded  the  English  post  at  the  Tourelles, 
and  he  and  another  English  officer  replied  by  bidding  her  go 
home  and  keep  her  cows,  and  by  ribald  jests,  that  brought 
tears  of  shame  and  indignation  into  her  eyes.  But  though 
the  English  leaders  vaunted  aloud,  the  effect  produced  on 
their  army  by  Joan's  presence  in  Orleans  was  proved  four  days 
after  her  arrival ;  when,  on  the  approach  of  reenforcements 
and  stores  to  the  town,  Joan  and  La  Hire  marched  out  to 
meet  them,  and  escorted  the  long  train  of  provision  wagons 
safely  into  Orleans,  between  the  bastilles  of  the  English,  who 
cowered  behind  their  walls,  instead  of  charging  fiercely  and 
fearlessly,  as  had  been  their  wont,  on  any  French  band  that 
dared  to  show  itself  within  reach. 

Thus  far  she  had  prevailed  without  striking  a  blow  ;  but 


1429]  RELIEF   OF   ORLEANS  23 1 

the  time  was  now  come  to  test  her  courage  amid  the  horrors 
of  actual  slaughter.  On  the  afternoon  of  the  day  on  which 
she  had  escorted  the  reenforcements  into  the  city,  while  she 
was  resting  fatigued  at  home,  Dunois  had  seized  an  advan- 
tageous opportunity  of  attacking  the  English  bastille  of  St. 
Loup ;  and  a  fierce  assault  of  the  Orleannais  had  been  made 
on  it,  which  the  English  garrison  of  the  fort  stubbornly  re- 
sisted. Joan  was  roused  by  a  sound  which  she  believed  to 
be  that  of  her  heavenly  voices ;  she  called  for  her  arms  and 
horse,  and,  quickly  equipping  herself,  she  mounted  to  ride  off 
to  where  the  fight  was  raging.  In  her  haste  she  had  forgotten 
her  banner ;  she  rode  back,  and,  without  dismounting,  had  it 
given  to  her  from  the  window,  and  then  she  galloped  to  the 
gate,  whence  the  sally  had  been  made.  On  her  way  she  met 
some  of  the  wounded  French  who  had  been  carried  back  from 
the  fight.  "  Ha,"  she  exclaimed,  "  I  never  can  see  French 
blood  flow  without  my  hair  standing  on  end."  She  rode  out 
of  the  gate  and  met  the  tide  of  her  countrymen,  who  had 
been  repulsed  from  the  English  fort  and  were  flying  back  to 
Orleans  in  confusion.  At  the  sight  of  the  Holy  Maid  and 
her  banner  they  rallied,  and  renewed  the  assault.  Joan  rode 
forward  at  their  head,  waving  her  banner  and  cheering  them 
on.  The  English  quailed  at  what  they  believed  to  be  the 
charge  of  hell ;  St.  Loup  was  stormed,  and  its  defenders  put 
to  the  sword,  except  some  few,  whom  Joan  succeeded  in  sav- 
ing. All  her  woman's  gentleness  returned  when  the  combat 
was  over.  It  was  the  first  time  that  she  had  ever  seen  a 
battle-field.  She  wept  at  the  sight  of  so  many  blood-stained 
and  mangled  corpses;  and  her  tears  flowed  doubly  when  she 
reflected  that  they  were  the  bodies  of  Christian  men  who  had 
died  without  confession. 

The  next  day  was  Ascension  day,  and  it  was  passed  by 
Joan  in  prayer.  But  on  the  following  morrow  it  was  resolved 
by  the  chiefs  of  the  garrison  to  attack  the  English  forts  on 
the  south  of  the  river.  For  this  purpose  they  crossed  the 
river  in  boats,  and  after  some  severe  fighting,  in  which  the 
Maid  was  wounded  in  the  heel,  both  the  English  bastilles  of 
the  Augustins  and  St.  Jean  de  Blanc  were  captured.  The 
Tourelles  were  now  the  only  post  which  the  besiegers  held 
on  the  south  of  the  river.     But  that  post  was   formidably 


232  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1429 

strong,  and  by  its  command  of  the  bridge  it  was  the  key  to 
the  deliverance  of  Orleans.  It  was  known  that  a  fresh  Eng- 
lish army  was  approaching  under  Falstolfe  to  reenforce  the 
besiegers,  and  should  that  army  arrive  while  the  Tourelles 
were  yet  in  the  possession  of  their  comrades,  there  was  great 
peril  of  all  the  advantages  which  the  French  had  gained  be- 
ing nullified,  and  of  the  siege  being  again  actively  carried  on. 

It  was  resolved,  therefore,  by  the  French,  to  assail  the  Tou- 
relles at  once,  while  the  enthusiasm  which  the  presence  and 
the  heroic  valor  of  the  Maid  had  created  was  at  its  height. 
But  the  enterprise  was  difficult.  The  rampart  of  the  tete-du- 
pont,  or  landward  bulwark,  of  the  Tourelles  was  steep  and 
high  ;  and  Sir  John  Gladsdale  occupied  this  all-important  fort 
with  five  hundred  archers  and  men-at-arms  who  were  the  very 
flower  of  the  English  army. 

Early  in  the  morning  of  the  7th  of  May,  some  thousands  of 
the  best  French  troops  in  Orleans  heard  mass  and  attended 
the  confessional  by  Joan's  orders ;  and  then,  crossing  the 
river  in  boats,  as  on  the  preceding  day,  they  assailed  the  bul- 
wark of  the  Tourelles,  "with  light  hearts  and  heavy  hands." 
But  Gladsdale's  men,  encouraged  by  their  bold  and  skilful 
leader,  made  a  resolute  and  able  defense.  The  Maid  planted 
her  banner  on  the  edge  of  the  fosse,  and  then,  springing  down 
into  the  ditch,  she  placed  the  first  ladder  against  the  wall,  and 
began  to  mount.  An  English  archer  sent  an  arrow  at  her, 
which  pierced  her  corselet  and  wounded  her  severely  between 
the  neck  and  shoulder.  She  fell  bleeding  from  the  ladder ; 
and  the  English  were  leaping  down  from  the  wall  to  capture 
her,  but  her  followers  bore  her  off.  She  was  carried  to  the 
rear,  and  laid  upon  the  grass ;  her  armor  was  taken  off,  and 
the  anguish  of  her  wound  and  the  sight  of  her  blood  made  her 
at  first  tremble  and  weep.  But  her  confidence  in  her  celes- 
tial mission  soon  returned ;  her  patron  saints  seemed  to  stand 
before  her  and  reassure  her.  She  sat  up  and  drew  the  arrow 
out  with  her  own  hands.  Some  of  the  soldiers  who  stood 
by  wished  to  stanch  the  blood,  by  saying  a  charm  over  the 
wound;  but  she  forbade  them,  saying  that  she  did  not  wish 
to  be  cured  by  unhallowed  means.  She  had  the  wound 
dressed  with  a  little  oil,  and  then,  bidding  her  confessor 
come  to  her,  she  betook  herself  to  prayer. 


1429]  RELIEF   OF   ORLEANS  233 

In  the  mean  while,  the  English  in  the  bulwark  of  the  Tou- 
relles  had  repulsed  the  oft-renewed  efforts  of  the  French  to 
scale  the  wall.  Dunois,  who  commanded  the  assailants,  was 
at  last  discouraged,  and  gave  orders  for  a  retreat  to  be  sounded. 
Joan  sent  for  him  and  the  other  generals,  and  implored  them 
not  to  despair.  "  '  By  my  God,'  she  said  to  them,  '  you  shall 
soon  enter  in  there.  Do  not  doubt  it.  When  you  see  my  ban- 
ner wave  again  up  to  the  wall,  to  your  arms  again  !  the  fort  is 
yours.  For  the  present  rest  a  little,  and  take  some  food  and 
drink.'  They  did  so,"  says  the  old  chronicler  of  the  siege,  "  for 
they  obeyed  her  marvelously."  The  faintness  caused  by  her 
wound  had  now  passed  off,  and  she  headed  the  French  in 
another  rush  against  the  bulwark.  The  English,  who  had 
thought  her  slain,  were  alarmed  at  her  reappearance,  while 
the  French  pressed  furiously  and  fanatically  forward.  A  Bis- 
cayan  soldier  was  carrying  Joan's  banner.  She  had  told  the 
troops  that  directly  the  banner  touched  the  wall  they  should 
enter.  The  Biscayan  waved  the  banner  forward  from  the  edge 
of  the  fosse,  and  touched  the  wall  with  it ;  and  then  all  the 
French  host  swarmed  madly  up  the  ladders  that  now  were 
raised  in  all  directions  against  the  English  fort.  At  this  crisis, 
the  efforts  of  the  English  garrison  were  distracted  by  an  attack 
from  another  quarter.  The  French  troops  who  had  been  left 
in  Orleans  had  placed  some  planks  over  the  broken  part  of  the 
bridge,  and  advanced  across  them  to  the  assault  of  the  Tou- 
relles  on  the  northern  side.  Gladsdale  resolved  to  withdraw 
his  men  from  the  landward  bulwark,  and  concentrate  his  whole 
force  in  the  Tourelles  themselves.  He  was  passing  for  this 
purpose  across  the  drawbridge  that  connected  the  Tourelles 
and  the  tete-du-pont,  when  Joan,  who  by  this  time  had  scaled 
the  wall  of  the  bulwark,  called  out  to  him,  "  Surrender,  sur- 
render to  the  King  of  Heaven.  Ah,  Glacidas,  you  have  foully 
wronged  me  with  your  words,  but  I  have  great  pity  on  your 
soul  and  the  souls  of  your  men."  The  Englishman,  disdain- 
ful of  her  summons,  was  striding  on  across  the  drawbridge, 
when  a  cannon-shot  from  the  town  carried  it  away,  and  Glads- 
dale perished  in  the  water  that  ran  beneath.  After  his  fall, 
the  remnant  of  the  English  abandoned  all  further  resistance. 
Three  hundred  of  them  had  been  killed  in  the  battle,  and  two 
hundred  were  made  prisoners. 


234  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1429 

The  broken  arch  was  speedily  repaired  by  the  exulting 
Orleannais ;  and  Joan  made  her  triumphal  reentry  into  the 
city  by  the  bridge  that  had  so  long  been  closed.  Every 
church  in  Orleans  rang  out  its  gratulating  peal ;  and  through- 
out the  night  the  sounds  of  rejoicing  echoed,  and  the  bonfires 
blazed  up  from  the  city.  But  in  the  lines  and  forts  which  the 
besiegers  yet  retained  on  the  northern  shore,  there  was  anx- 
ious watching  of  the  generals,  and  there  was  desponding 
gloom  among  the  soldiery.  Even  Talbot  now  counseled 
retreat.  On  the  following  morning,  the  Orleannais,  from 
their  walls,  saw  the  great  forts  called  "  London  "  and  "  St. 
Lawrence,"  in  flames,  and  witnessed  their  invaders  busy  in 
destroying  the  stores  and  munitions  which  had  been  relied  on 
for  the  destruction  of  Orleans.  Slowly  and  sullenly  the  Eng- 
lish army  retired ;  but  not  before  it  had  drawn  up  in  battle 
array  opposite  to  the  city,  as  if  to  challenge  the  garrison  to 
an  encounter.  The  French  troops  were  eager  to  go  out  and 
attack,  but  Joan  forbade  it.  The  day  was  Sunday.  "  In  the 
name  of  God,"  she  said,  "let  them  depart,  and  let  us  return 
thanks  to  God."  She  led  the  soldiers  and  citizens  forth  from 
Orleans,  but  not  for  the  shedding  of  blood.  They  passed 
in  solemn  procession  round  the  city  walls ;  and  then,  while 
their  retiring  enemies  were  yet  in  sight,  they  knelt  in  thanks- 
giving to  God  for  the  deliverance  which  he  had  vouchsafed 
them. 

Within  three  months  from  the  time  of  her  first  interview 
with  the  dauphin,  Joan  had  fulfilled  the  first  part  of  her 
promise,  the  raising  of  the  siege  of  Orleans.  Within  three 
months  more  she  fulfilled  the  second  part  also ;  and  she 
stood  with  her  banner  in  her  hand  by  the  high  altar  at  Rheims 
while  he  was  anointed  and  crowned  as  King  Charles  VII.  of 
France.  In  the  interval  she  had  taken  Jargeau,  Troyes,  and 
other  strong  places ;  and  she  had  defeated  an  English  army 
in  a  fair  field  at  Patay.  The  enthusiasm  of  her  countrymen 
knew  no  bounds ;  but  the  importance  of  her  services,  and 
especially  of  her  primary  achievement  at  Orleans,  may  per- 
haps be  best  proved  by  the  testimony  of  her  enemies.  There 
is  extant  a  fragment  of  a  letter  from  the  Regent  Bedford  to 
his  royal  nephew,  Henry  VI.,  in  which  he  bewails  the  turn 
that  the  war  had  taken,  and  especially  attributes  it  to  the 


1429]  RELIEF    OF    ORLEANS  235 

raising  of  the  siege  of  Orleans  by  Joan.  Bedford's  own 
words,  which  are  preserved  in  Rymer,  are  as  follows :  — 

"  And  alle  thing  there  prospered  for  yon  til  the  tyme  of  the 
Siege  of  Orleans,  taken  in  Jiand,  God  knoweth  by  zvhat  advis. 

"At  the  whiche  tyme,  after  the  adventure  fallen  to  the  per- 
sone  of  my  cousin  of  Salisbury,  whom  God  assoille,  there  felle, 
by  the  hand  of  God  as  it  seemeth,  a  great  strook  upon  your 
peuple  that  was  assembled  there  in  grete  nombre,  caused  in 
grete  partie,  as  y  troive,  of  lakke  of  sadde  beleve,  and  of  unleve- 
fulle  doubt  e,  that  thei  hadde  of  a  disciple  and  lyme  of  the  Feende, 
called  the  Pucelle,  that  used  fals  enchantments  and  sorcerie. 

"  The  wliiclie  strooke  and  discomjittire  not  oonly  lessed  in 
grete  partie  the  nombre  of  your  peuple  there,  but  as  well  with- 
drewe  the  courage  of  the  remenant  in  merveillous  wyse,  and 
couraiged  your  adverse  partie  and  ennemys  to  assemble  them 
forthwith  in  grete  nombre." 

When  Charles  had  been  anointed  king  of  France,  Joan 
believed  that  her  mission  was  accomplished.  And  in  truth 
the  deliverance  of  France  from  the  English,  though  not  com- 
pleted for  many  years  afterwards,  was  then  insured.  The 
ceremony  of  a  royal  coronation  and  anointment  was  not  in 
those  days  regarded  as  a  mere  costly  formality.  It  was 
believed  to  confer  the  sanction  and  the  grace  of  Heaven  upon 
the  prince,  who  had  previously  ruled  with  mere  human  author- 
ity. Thenceforth  he  was  the  Lord's  Anointed.  Moreover, 
one  of  the  difficulties  that  had  previously  lain  in  the  way  of 
many  Frenchmen  when  called  on  to  support  Charles  VII. 
was  now  removed.  He  had  been  publicly  stigmatized,  even 
by  his  own  parents,  as  no  true  son  of  the  royal  race  of  France. 
The  queen  mother,  the  English,  and  the  partisans  of  Burgundy 
called  him  the  "  Pretender  to  the  title  of  Dauphin  "  ;  but  those 
who  had  been  led  to  doubt  his  legitimacy  were  cured  of  their 
skepticism  by  the  victories  of  the  Holy  Maid,  and  by  the  ful- 
filment of  her  pledges.  They  thought  that  Heaven  had  now 
declared  itself  in  favor  of  Charles  as  the  true  heir  of  the  crown 
of  St.  Louis ;  and  the  tales  about  his  being  spurious  were 
thenceforth  regarded  as  mere  English  calumnies.  With  this 
strong  tide  of  national  feeling  in  his  favor,  with  victorious 
generals  and  soldiers  round  him,  and  a  dispirited  and  divided 
enemy  before  him,  he  could  not  fail  to  conquer ;  though  his 


236  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1429 

own  imprudence  and  misconduct,  and  the  stubborn  valor 
which  some  of  the  English  still  displayed,  prolonged  the  war 
in  France  nearly  to  the  time  when  the  civil  war  of  the  Roses 
broke  out  in  England,  and  insured  for  France  peace  and 
repose. 

Joan  knelt  before  the  new-crowned  king  in  the  cathedral  of 
Rheims,  and  shed  tears  of  joy.  She  said  that  she  had  then 
fulfilled  the  work  which  the  Lord  had  commanded  her.  The 
young  girl  now  asked  for  her  dismissal.  She  wished  to  return 
to  her  peasant  home,  to  tend  her  parent's  flocks  again,  and  to 
live  at  her  own  will  in  her  native  village.  She  had  always 
believed  that  her  career  would  be  a  short  one.  But  Charles 
and  his  captains  were  loath  to  lose  the  presence  of  one  who 
had  such  an  influence  upon  the  soldiery  and  the  people.  They 
persuaded  her  to  stay  with  the  army.  She  still  showed  the 
same  bravery  and  zeal  for  the  cause  of  France.  She  was 
as  fervent  as  before  in  her  prayers,  and  as  exemplary  in  all 
religious  duties.  She  still  heard  her  heavenly  voices,  but  she 
now  no  longer  thought  herself  the  appointed  minister  of 
Heaven  to  lead  her  countrymen  to  certain  victory.  Our 
admiration  for  her  courage  and  patriotism  ought  to  be 
increased  a  hundred-fold  by  her  conduct  throughout  the  lat- 
ter part  of  her  career,  amid  dangers  against  which  she  no 
longer  believed  herself  to  be  divinely  secured.  Indeed,  she 
believed  herself  doomed  to  perish  in  a  little  more  than  a  year ; 
but  she  still  fought  on  as  resolutely,  if  not  as  exultingly,  as 
ever. 

As  in  the  case  of  Arminius,  the  interest  attached  to  indi- 
vidual heroism  and  virtue  makes  us  trace  the  fate  of  Joan  of 
Arc  after  she  had  saved  her  country.  She  served  well  with 
Charles's  army  in  the  capture  of  Laon,  Soissons,  Compiegne, 
Beauvais,  and  other  strong  places ;  but  in  a  premature  attack 
on  Paris,  in  September,  1429,  the  French  were  repulsed  and 
Joan  was  severely  wounded.  In  the  winter  she  was  again  in 
the  field  with  some  of  the  French  troops ;  and  in  the  follow- 
ing spring  she  threw  herself  into  the  fortress  of  Compiegne, 
which  she  had  herself  won  for  the  French  king  in  the  pre- 
ceding autumn,  and  which  was  now  besieged  by  a  strong 
Burgundian  force. 

She  was  taken  prisoner  in  a  sally  from  Compiegne,  on  the 


1429]  RELIEF   OF   ORLEANS  237 

24th  of  May,  and  was  imprisoned  by  the  Burgundians  first  at 
Arras,  and  then  at  a  place  called  Crotoy,  on  the  Flemish 
coast,  until  November,  when  for  payment  of  a  large  sum  of 
money  she  was  given  up  to  the  English,  and  taken  to  Rouen, 
which  was  then  their  main  stronghold  in  France. 

"  Sorrow  it  were,  and  shame  to  tell, 
The  butchery  that  there  befell." 

And  the  revolting  details  of  the  cruelties  practised  upon  this 
young  girl  may  be  left  to  those  whose  duty  as  avowed  biogra- 
phers it  is  to  describe  them.2  She  was  tried  before  an  eccle- 
siastical tribunal  on  the  charge  of  witchcraft,  and  on  the  30th 
of  May,  143 1,  she  was  burned  alive  in  the  market-place  at 
Rouen. 

I  will  add  but  one  remark  on  the  character  of  the  truest 
heroine  that  the  world  has  ever  seen. 

If  any  person  can  be  found  in  the  present  age  who  would 
join  in  the  scoffs  of  Voltaire  against  the  Maid  of  Orleans  and 
the  heavenly  voices  by  which  she  believed  herself  inspired, 
let  him  read  the  life  of  the  wisest  and  best  man  that  the 
heathen  nations  ever  produced.  Let  him  read  of  the  heav- 
enly voice  by  which  Socrates  believed  himself  to  be  con- 
stantly attended ;  which  cautioned  him  on  his  way  from  the 
field  of  battle  at  Delium,  and  which  from  his  boyhood  to  the 
time  of  his  death  visited  him  with  unearthly  warnings.  Let 
the  modern  reader  reflect  upon  this;  and  then,  unless  he  is 
prepared  to  term  Socrates  either  fool  or  impostor,  let  him  not 
dare  to  deride  or  vilify  Joan  of  Arc. 

Notes 

1  Southey,  in  one  of  the  speeches  which  he  puts  in  the  mouth  of  his 
Joan  of  Arc,  has  made  her  beautifully  describe  the  effect  on  her  mind  of  the 
scenery  in  which  she  dwelt :  — 

"  Here  in  solitude  and  peace 
My  soul  was  nurst,  amid  the  loveliest  scenes 
Of  unpolluted  nature.     Sweet  it  was, 
As  the  white  mists  of  morning  rolled  away, 
To  see  the  mountain's  wooded  heights  appear 
Dark  in  the  early  dawn,  and  mark  its  slope 
With  gorse-flowers  glowing,  as  the  rising  sun 
On  the  golden  ripeness  poured  a  deepening  light. 


238  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1429 

Pleasant  at  noon  beside  the  vocal  brook 

To  lay  me  down,  and  watch  the  floating  clouds, 

And  shape  to  Fancy's  wild  similitudes 

Their  ever-varying  forms  ;  and  oh,  how  sweet, 

To  drive  my  flock  at  evening  to  the  fold, 

And  hasten  to  our  little  hut,  and  hear 

The  voice  of  kindness  bid  me  welcome  home ! " 

The  only  foundation  for  the  story  told  by  the  Burgundian  partisan  Mon- 
strelet,  and  adopted  by  Hume,  of  Joan  having  been  brought  up  as  servant 
at  an  inn,  is  the  circumstance  of  her  having  been  once,  with  the  rest  of  her 
family,  obliged  to  take  refuge  in  an  anberge  in  Neufchateau  for  fifteen  days, 
when  a  party  of  Burgundian  cavalry  made  an  incursion  in  Domre"my. 

2  The  whole  of  the  "  Proces  de  Condamnation  et  de  Rehabilitation  de 
Jeanne  d'Arc  "  has  been  published  in  five  volumes  by  the  Socidte  de  THis- 
toire  de  France.  All  the  passages  from  contemporary  chroniclers  and  poets 
are  added ;  and  the  most  ample  materials  are  thus  given  for  acquiring  full 
information  on  a  subject  which  is,  to  an  Englishman,  one  of  painful  interest. 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  Joan  of  Arc's  Victory  at 
Orleans,  1429,  and  the  Defeat  of  the  Spanish  Ar- 
mada,  1588 

1452.  Final  expulsion  of  the  English  from  France. 

1453.  Constantinople  taken,  and  the  Roman  empire  of  the 
East  destroyed  by  the  Turkish  Sultan  Mahomet  II. 

1455.  Commencement  of  the  civil  wars  in  England  between 
the  houses  of  York  and  Lancaster. 

1479.  Union  of  the  Christian  kingdoms  of  Spain  under 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella. 

1492.  Capture  of  Granada  by  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  and 
end  of  the  Moorish  dominion  in  Spain. 

1492.    Columbus  discovers  the  New  World. 

1494.    Charles  VIII.  of  France  invades  Italy. 

1497.  Expedition  of  Vasco  di  Gama  to  the  East  Indies 
round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope. 

1503.  Naples  conquered  from  the  French  by  the  great 
Spanish  general,  Gonsalvo  of  Cordova. 

1 508.  League  of  Cam  bray,  by  the  pope,  the  emperor,  and 
the  king  of  France,  against  Venice. 

1509.  Albuquerque  establishes  the  empire  of  the  Portu- 
guese in  the  East  Indies. 

1 5 16.  Death  of  Ferdinand  of  Spain;  he  is  succeeded  by 
his  grandson  Charles,  afterwards  the  Emperor  Charles  V. 


1429]  RELIEF   OF   ORLEANS  239 

1 5 17.  Dispute  between  Luther  and  Tetzel  respecting  the 
sale  of  indulgences,  which  is  the  immediate  cause  of  the  Ref- 
ormation. 

1 5 19.  Charles  V.  is  elected  emperor  of  Germany. 

1520.  Cortez  conquers  Mexico. 

1525.  Francis  I.  of  France  defeated  and  taken  prisoner  by 
the  imperial  army  at  Pavia. 

1529.  League  of  Smalcald  formed  by  the  Protestant 
princes  of  Germany. 

1533.   Henry  VIII.  renounces  the  papal  supremacy. 

1533.    Pizarro  conquers  Peru. 

1556.  Abdication  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  Philip  II. 
becomes  king  of  Spain,  and  Ferdinand  I.  emperor  of  Ger- 
many. 

1557.  Elizabeth  becomes  queen  of  England. 

1557.  The  Spaniards  defeat  the  French  at  the  battle  of  St. 
Quentin. 

1 571.  Don  John  of  Austria  at  the  head  of  the  Spanish 
fleet,  aided  by  the  Venetian  and  the  papal  squadrons,  defeats 
the  Turks  at  Lepanto. 

1572.  Massacre  of  the  Protestants  in  France  on  St.  Bar- 
tholomew's day. 

1579.  The  Netherlands  revolt  against  Spain. 

1580.  Philip  II.  conquers  Portugal. 


240  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1588 


CHAPTER   X 

The  Defeat  of  the  Spanish  Armada,  1588 

"  In  that  memorable  year,  when  the  dark  cloud  gathered  round  our 
coasts,  when  Europe  stood  by  in  fearful  suspense  to  behold  what  should  be 
the  result  of  that  great  cast  in  the  game  of  human  politics,  what  the  craft  of 
Rome,  the  power  of  Philip,  the  genius  of  Farnese,  could  achieve  against  the 
island  queen,  with  her  Drakes  and  Cecils  —  in  that  agony  of  the  Protestant 
faith  and  English  name.1' —  Hallam,  Const.  Hist.,  vol.  i.,  p.  220. 

ON  the  afternoon  of  the  19th  of  July,  1588,  a  group  of 
English  captains  was  collected  at  the  Bowling  Green 
on  the  Hoe  at  Plymouth,  whose  equals  have  never 
before  or  since  been  brought  together,  even  at  that  favorite 
mustering  place  of  the  heroes  of  the  British  navy.  There  was 
Sir  Francis  Drake,  the  first  English  circumnavigator  of  the 
globe,  the  terror  of  every  Spanish  coast  in  the  Old  World  and 
the  New;  there  was  Sir  John  Hawkins,  the  rough  veteran  of 
many  a  daring  voyage  on  the  African  and  American  seas, 
and  of  many  a  desperate  battle  ;  there  was  Sir  Martin  Fro- 
bisher,  one  of  the  earliest  explorers  of  the  Arctic  seas  in  search 
of  that  Northwest  Passage  which  is  still  the  darling  object  of 
England's  boldest  mariners.  There  was  the  high  admiral  of 
England,  Lord  Howard  of  Effingham,  prodigal  of  all  things 
in  his  country's  cause,  and  who  had  recently  had  the  noble 
daring  to  refuse  to  dismantle  part  of  the  fleet,  though  the 
queen  had  sent  him  orders  to  do  so,  in  consequence  of  an 
exaggerated  report  that  the  enemy  had  been  driven  back  and 
shattered  by  a  storm.  Lord  Howard  (whom  contemporary 
writers  describe  as  being  of  a  wise  and  noble  courage,  skilful 
in  sea  matters,  wary  and  provident,  and  of  great  esteem  among 
the  sailors)  resolved  to  risk  his  sovereign's  anger  and  to  keep 
the  ships  afloat  at  his  own  charge,  rather  than  that  England 
should  run  the  peril  of  losing  their  protection. 

Another  of  our  Elizabethan  sea-kings,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 


1588]  DEFEAT   OF  THE   ARMADA  24 1 

was  at  that  time  commissioned  to  raise  and  equip  the  land- 
forces  of  Cornwall ;  but,  as  he  was  also  commander  of 
Plymouth,  we  may  well  believe  that  he  must  have  availed 
himself  of  the  opportunity  of  consulting  with  the  lord  admiral 
and  other  high  officers  which  was  offered  by  the  English 
fleet  putting  into  that  port ;  and  we  may  look  on  Raleigh  as 
one  of  the  group  that  was  assembled  at  the  Bowling  Green 
on  the  Hoe.  Many  other  brave  men  and  skilful  mariners, 
besides  the  chiefs  whose  names  have  been  mentioned,  were 
there,  enjoying,  with  true  sailor-like  merriment,  their  tempo- 
rary relaxation  from  duty.  In  the  harbor  lay  the  English 
fleet  with  which  they  had  just  returned  from  a  cruise  to  Co- 
runna  in  search  of  information  respecting  the  real  condition 
and  movements  of  the  hostile  Armada.  Lord  Howard  had 
ascertained  that  our  enemies,  though  tempest-tossed,  were 
still  formidably  strong;  and  fearing  that  part  of  their  fleet 
might  make  for  England  in  his  absence,  he  had  hurried  back 
to  the  Devonshire  coast.  He  resumed  his  station  at  Plymouth, 
and  waited  there  for  certain  tidings  of  the  Spaniard's  approach. 

A  match  at  bowls  was  being  played,  in  which  Drake  and 
other  high  officers  of  the  fleet  were  engaged,  when  a  small 
armed  vessel  was  seen  running  before  the  wind  into  Plymouth 
harbor,  with  all  sails  set.  Her  commander  landed  in  haste, 
and  eagerly  sought  the  place  where  the  English  lord  admiral 
and  his  captains  were  standing.  His  name  was  Fleming  ;  he 
was  the  master  of  a  Scotch  privateer ;  and  he  told  the  English 
officers  that  he  had  that  morning  seen  the  Spanish  Armada 
off  the  Cornish  coast.  At  this  exciting  information  the  cap- 
tains began  to  hurry  down  to  the  water,  and  there  was  a 
shouting  for  the  ships'  boats ;  but  Drake  coolly  checked  his 
comrades,  and  insisted  that  the  match  should  be  played  out. 
He  said  that  there  was  plenty  of  time  both  to  win  the  game 
and  beat  the  Spaniards.  The  best  and  bravest  match  that 
ever  was  scored  was  resumed  accordingly.  Drake  and  his 
friends  aimed  their  last  bowls  with  the  same  steady,  calculat- 
ing coolness  with  which  they  were  about  to  point  their  guns. 
The  winning  cast  was  made ;  and  then  they  went  on  board 
and  prepared  for  action,  with  their  hearts  as  light  and  their 
nerves  as  firm  as  they  had  been  on  the  Hoe  Bowling  Green. 

Meanwhile  the  messengers  and  signals  had  been  despatched 


242  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1588 

fast  and  far  through  England,  to  warn  each  town  and  village 
that  the  enemy  had  come  at  last.  In  every  seaport  there  was 
instant  making  ready  by  land  and  by  sea ;  in  every  shire  and 
every  city  there  was  instant  mustering  of  horse  and  man. 
But  England's  best  defense  then,  as  ever,  was  her  fleet ;  and 
after  warping  laboriously  out  of  Plymouth  harbor  against  the 
wind,  the  lord  admiral  stood  westward  under  easy  sail,  keep- 
ing an  anxious  lookout  for  the  Armada,  the  approach  of  which 
was  soon  announced  by  Cornish  fishing-boats  and  signals  from 
the  Cornish  cliffs. 

The  England  of  our  own  days  is  so  strong,  and  the  Spain 
of  our  own  days  is  so  feeble,  that  it  is  not  possible,  without 
some  reflection  and  care,  to  comprehend  the  full  extent  of  the 
peril  which  England  then  ran  from  the  power  and  the  ambi- 
tion of  Spain,  or  to  appreciate  the  importance  of  that  crisis 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  We  had  then  no  Indian  or  colo- 
nial empire  save  the  feeble  germs  of  our  North  American 
settlements,  which  Raleigh  and  Gilbert  had  recently  planted. 
Scotland  was  a  separate  kingdom  ;  and  Ireland  was  then  even 
a  greater  source  of  weakness,  and  a  worse  nest  of  rebellion, 
than  she  has  been  in  after-times.  Queen  Elizabeth  had  found 
at  her  accession  an  encumbered  revenue,  a  divided  people, 
and  an  unsuccessful  foreign  war,  in  which  the  last  remnant 
of  our  possessions  in  France  had  been  lost;  she  had  also  a 
formidable  pretender  to  her  crown,  whose  interests  were 
favored  by  all  the  Roman  Catholic  powers ;  and  even  some 
of  her  subjects  were  warped  by  religious  bigotry  to  deny 
her  title  and  to  look  on  her  as  an  heretical  usurper.  It  is 
true  that  during  the  years  of  her  reign  which  had  passed  away 
before  the  attempted  invasion  of  1588,  she  had  revived  the 
commercial  prosperity,  the  national  spirit,  and  the  national 
loyalty  of  England.  But  her  resources,  to  cope  with  the  colos- 
sal power  of  Philip  II.,  still  seemed  most  scanty;  and  she 
had  not  a  single  foreign  ally,  except  the  Dutch,  who  were 
themselves  struggling  hard,  and,  as  it  seemed,  hopelessly,  to 
maintain  their  revolt  against  Spain. 

On  the  other  hand,  Philip  II.  was  absolute  master  of  an 
empire  so  superior  to  the  other  states  of  the  world  in  extent, 
in  resources,  and  especially  in  military  and  naval  forces,  as 
to  make  the  project  of  enlarging  that  empire  into  a  universal 


1588]  DEFEAT   OF   THE    ARMADA  243 

monarchy  seem  a  perfectly  feasible  scheme ;  and  Philip  had 
both  the  ambition  to  form  that  project  and  the  resolution 
to  devote  all  his  energies  and  all  his  means  to  its  realization. 
Since  the  downfall  of  the  Roman  empire  no  such  preponder- 
ating power  had  existed  in  the  world.  During  the  medieval 
centuries  the  chief  European  kingdoms  were  slowly  molding 
themselves  out  of  the  feudal  chaos.  And,  though  their  wars 
with  each  other  were  numerous  and  desperate,  and  several  of 
their  respective  kings  figured  for  a  time  as  mighty  conquerors, 
none  of  them  in  those  times  acquired  the  consistency  and  per- 
fect organization  which  are  requisite  for  a  long-sustained 
career  of  aggrandizement.  After  the  consolidation  of  the 
great  kingdoms,  they  for  some  time  kept  each  other  in  mu- 
tual check.  During  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
the  balancing  system  was  successfully  practised  by  European 
statesmen.  But  when  Philip  II.  reigned,  France  had  become 
so  miserably  weak  through  her  civil  wars  that  he  had  nothing 
to  dread  from  the  rival  state  which  had  so  long  curbed  his 
father,  the  Emperor  Charles  V.  In  Germany,  Italy,  and 
Poland  he  had  either  zealous  friends  and  dependents,  or  weak 
and  divided  enemies.  Against  the  Turks  he  had  gained  great 
and  glorious  successes ;  and  he  might  look  round  the  conti- 
nent of  Europe  without  discerning  a  single  antagonist  of  whom 
he  could  stand  in  awe.  Spain,  when  he  acceded  to  the  throne, 
was  at  the  zenith  of  her  power.  The  hardihood  and  spirit 
which  the  Aragonese,  the  Castilians,  and  the  other  nations 
of  the  Peninsula  had  acquired  during  centuries  of  free  insti- 
tutions and  successful  war  against  the  Moors  had  not  yet 
become  obliterated.  Charles  V.  had,  indeed,  destroyed  the 
liberties  of  Spain ;  but  that  had  been  done  too  recently  for 
its  full  evil  to  be  felt  in  Philip's  time.  A  people  cannot  be 
debased  in  a  single  generation ;  and  the  Spaniards  under 
Charles  V.  and  Philip  II.  proved  the  truth  of  the  remark  that 
no  nation  is  ever  so  formidable  to  its  neighbors,  for  a  time,  as 
is  a  nation  which,  after  being  trained  up  in  self-government, 
passes  suddenly  under  a  despotic  ruler.  The  energy  of  demo- 
cratic institutions  survives  for  a  few  generations,  and  to  it  are 
superadded  the  decision  and  certainty  which  are  the  attributes 
of  government  when  all  its  powers  are  directed  by  a  single 
mind.     It  is  true  that  this  preternatural  vigor  is  short-lived : 


244  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1588 

national  corruption  and  debasement  gradually  follow  the  loss 
of  the  national  liberties ;  but  there  is  an  interval  before  their 
workings  are  felt,  and  in  that  interval  the  most  ambitious 
schemes  of  foreign  conquest  are  often  successfully  undertaken. 

Philip  had  also  the  advantage  of  finding  himself  at  the 
head  of  a  large  standing  army  in  a  perfect  state  of  disci- 
pline and  equipment,  in  an  age  when,  except  some  few  insig- 
nificant corps,  standing  armies  were  unknown  in  Christendom. 
The  renown  of  the  Spanish  troops  was  justly  high,  and  the 
infantry  in  particular  was  considered  the  best  in  the  world. 
His  fleet,  also,  was  far  more  numerous  and  better  appointed 
than  that  of  any  other  European  power ;  and  both  his  sol- 
diers and  his  sailors  had  the  confidence  in  themselves  and 
their  commanders  which  a  long  career  of  successful  warfare 
alone  can  create. 

Besides  the  Spanish  crown,  Philip  succeeded  to  the  king- 
dom of  Naples  and  Sicily,  the  Duchy  of  Milan,  Franche- 
Comte,  and  the  Netherlands.  In  Africa  he  possessed  Tunis, 
Oran,  the  Cape  Verde  and  the  Canary  islands ;  and  in  Asia, 
the  Philippine  and  the  Sunda  islands,  and  a  part  of  the  Moluc- 
cas. Beyond  the  Atlantic  he  was  lord  of  the  most  splendid 
portions  of  the  New  World  which  "  Columbus  found  for 
Castile  and  Leon."  The  empires  of  Peru  and  Mexico,  New 
Spain,  and  Chile,  with  their  abundant  mines  of  the  precious 
metals,  Hispaniola  and  Cuba,  and  many  other  of  the  American 
islands,  were  provinces  of  the  sovereign  of  Spain. 

Philip  had,  indeed,  experienced  the  mortification  of  seeing 
the  inhabitants  of  the  Netherlands  revolt  against  his  author- 
ity, nor  could  he  succeed  in  bringing  back  beneath  the  Span- 
ish scepter  all  the  possessions  which  his  father  had  bequeathed 
to  him.  But  he  had  reconquered  a  large  number  of  the  towns 
and  districts  that  originally  took  up  arms  against  him.  Bel- 
gium was  brought  more  thoroughly  into  implicit  obedience  to 
Spain  than  she  had  been  before  her  insurrection,  and  it  was 
only  Holland  and  the  six  other  northern  states  that  still  held 
out  against  his  arms.  The  contest  had  also  formed  a  compact 
and  veteran  army  on  Philip's  side,  which,  under  his  great  gen- 
eral, the  Prince  of  Parma,  had  been  trained  to  act  together 
under  all  difficulties  and  all  vicissitudes  of  warfare ;  and 
on  whose  steadiness  and  loyalty  perfect  reliance  might  be 


1588]  DEFEAT   OF   THE   ARMADA  245 

placed  throughout  any  enterprise,  however  difficult  and  tedi- 
ous. Alexander  Farnese,  Prince  of  Parma,  captain-general 
of  the  Spanish  armies,  and  governor  of  the  Spanish  posses- 
sions in  the  Netherlands,  was  beyond  all  comparison  the 
greatest  military  genius  of  his  age.  He  was  also  highly  dis- 
tinguished for  political  wisdom  and  sagacity,  and  for  his  great 
administrative  talents.  He  was  idolized  by  his  troops,  whose 
affections  he  knew  how  to  win  without  relaxing  their  disci- 
pline or  diminishing  his  own  authority.  Preeminently  cool 
and  circumspect  in  his  plans,  but  swift  and  energetic  when 
the  moment  arrived  for  striking  a  decisive  blow,  neglecting 
no  risk  that  caution  could  provide  against,  conciliating  even 
the  populations  of  the  districts  which  he  attacked  by  his  scru- 
pulous good  faith,  his  moderation,  and  his  address,  Farnese 
was  one  of  the  most  formidable  generals  that  ever  could  be 
placed  at  the  head  of  an  army  designed  not  only  to  win  bat- 
tles, but  to  effect  conquests.  Happy  it  is  for  England  and 
the  world  that  this  island  was  saved  from  becoming  an  arena 
for  the  exhibition  of  his  powers. 

Whatever  diminution  the  Spanish  empire  might  have  sus- 
tained in  the  Netherlands  seemed  to  be  more  than  com- 
pensated by  the  acquisition  of  Portugal,  which  Philip  had 
completely  conquered  in  1580.  Not  only  that  ancient  king- 
dom itself,  but  all  the  fruits  of  the  maritime  enterprises  of 
the  Portuguese  had  fallen  into  Philip's  hands.  All  the  Por- 
tuguese colonies  in  America,  Africa,  and  the  East  Indies 
acknowledged  the  sovereignty  of  the  king  of  Spain,  who 
thus  not  only  united  the  whole  Iberian  peninsula  under  his 
single  scepter,  but  had  acquired  a  transmarine  empire,  little 
inferior  in  wealth  and  extent  to  that  which  he  had  inherited 
at  his  accession.  The  splendid  victory  which  his  fleet,  in  con- 
junction with  the  papal  and  Venetian  galleys,  had  gained  at 
Lepanto  over  the  Turks  had  deservedly  exalted  the  fame 
of  the  Spanish  marine  throughout  Christendom ;  and  when 
Philip  had  reigned  thirty-five  years  the  vigor  of  his  empire 
seemed  unbroken,  and  the  glory  of  the  Spanish  arms  had 
increased,  and  was  increasing,  throughout  the  world. 

One  nation  only  had  been  his  active,  his  persevering,  and 
his  successful  foe.  England  had  encouraged  his  revolted 
subjects  in  Flanders  against   him,  and   given  them  the  aid 


246  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1588 

in  men  and  money  without  which  they  must  soon  have  been 
humbled  in  the  dust.  English  ships  had  plundered  his  colo- 
nies, had  defied  his  supremacy  in  the  New  World  as  well 
as  the  Old ;  they  had  inflicted  ignominious  defeats  on  his 
squadrons;  they  had  captured  his  cities,  and  burned  his 
arsenals  on  the  very  coasts  of  Spain.  The  English  had 
made  Philip  himself  the  object  of  personal  insult.  He  was 
held  up  to  ridicule  in  their  stage  plays  and  masks,  and  these 
scoffs  at  the  man  had  (as  is  not  unusual  in  such  cases) 
excited  the  anger  of  the  absolute  king,  even  more  vehe- 
mently than  the  injuries  inflicted  on  his  power.  Personal  as 
well  as  political  revenge  urged  him  to  attack  England.  Were 
she  once  subdued,  the  Dutch  must  submit ;  France  could  not 
cope  with  him,  the  empire  would  not  oppose  him  ;  and  uni- 
versal dominion  seemed  sure  to  be  the  result  of  the  conquest 
of  that  malignant  island. 

There  was  yet  another  and  a  stronger  feeling  which  armed 
King  Philip  against  England.  He  was  one  of  the  sincerest 
and  sternest  bigots  of  his  age.  He  looked  on  himself,  and 
was  looked  on  by  others,  as  the  appointed  champion  to  extir- 
pate heresy  and  reestablish  the  papal  power  throughout 
Europe.  A  powerful  reaction  against  Protestantism  had 
taken  place  since  the  commencement  of  the  second  half  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  and  Philip  believed  that  he  was  des- 
tined to  complete  it.  The  Reform  doctrines  had  been  thor- 
oughly rooted  out  from  Italy  and  Spain.  Belgium,  which 
had  previously  been  half  Protestant,  had  been  reconquered 
both  in  allegiance  and  creed  by  Philip,  and  had  become  one 
of  the  most  Catholic  countries  in  the  world.  Half  Germany 
had  been  won  back  to  the  old  faith.  In  Savoy,  in  Switzer- 
land, and  many  other  countries,  the  progress  of  the  counter- 
Reformation  had  been  rapid  and  decisive.  The  Catholic 
league  seemed  victorious  in  France.  The  papal  court  itself 
had  shaken  off  the  supineness  of  recent  centuries,  and,  at 
the  head  of  the  Jesuits  and  the  other  new  ecclesiastical 
orders,  was  displaying  a  vigor  and  a  boldness  worthy  of  the 
days  of  Hildebrand  or  Innocent  III. 

Throughout  Continental  Europe,  the  Protestants,  discom- 
fited and  dismayed,  looked  to  England  as  their  protector  and 
refuge.     England  was   the  acknowledged   central   point   of 


1588]  DEFEAT   OF   THE   ARMADA  247 

Protestant  power  and  policy ;  and  to  conquer  England  was 
to  stab  Protestantism  to  the  very  heart.  Sixtus  V.,  the  then 
reigning  pope,  earnestly  exhorted  Philip  to  this  enterprise. 
And  when  the  tidings  reached  Italy  and  Spain  that  the 
Protestant  queen  of  England  had  put  to  death  her  Catholic 
prisoner,  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  the  fury  of  the  Vatican  and 
the  Escurial  knew  no  bounds. 

The  Prince  of  Parma,  who  was  appointed  military  chief 
of  the  expedition,  collected  on  the  coast  of  Flanders  a  vet- 
eran force  that  was  to  play  a  principal  part  in  the  conquest 
of  England.  Besides  the  troops  who  were  in  his  garrisons, 
or  under  his  colors,  five  thousand  infantry  were  sent  to  him 
from  Northern  and  Central  Italy,  four  thousand  from  the 
kingdom  of  Naples,  six  thousand  from  Castile,  three  thou- 
sand from  Aragon,  three  thousand  from  Austria  and  Ger- 
many, together  with  four  squadrons  of  heavy-armed  horse ; 
besides  which  he  received  forces  from  the  Franche-Comte 
and  the  Walloon  country.  By  his  command,  the  forest  of 
Waes  was  felled  for  the  purpose  of  building  flat-bottomed 
boats,  which,  floating  down  the  rivers  and  canals  to  Mein- 
port  and  Dunkirk,  were  to  carry  this  large  army  of  chosen 
troops  to  the  mouth  of  the  Thames,  under  the  escort  of  the 
great  Spanish  fleet.  Gun-carriages,  fascines,  machines  used 
in  sieges,  together  with  every  material  requisite  for  building 
bridges,  forming  camps,  and  raising  fortresses,  were  to  be 
placed  on  board  the  flotillas  of  the  Prince  of  Parma,  who 
followed  up  the  conquest  of  the  Netherlands  while  he  was 
making  preparations  for  the  invasion  of  this  island.  Favored 
by  the  dissensions  between  the  insurgents  of  the  United  Prov- 
inces and  Leicester,  the  Prince  of  Parma  had  recovered 
Deventer,  as  well  as  a  fort  before  Zutphen,  which  the  Eng- 
lish commanders,  Sir  William  Stanley,  the  friend  of  Babing- 
ton,  and  Sir  Roland  York,  had  surrendered  to  him  when 
with  their  troops  they  passed  over  to  the  service  of  Philip 
II.,  after  the  death  of  Mary  Stuart,  and  he  had  also  made 
himself  master  of  the  Sluys.  His  intention  was  to  leave  to 
the  Count  de  Mansfeldt  sufficient  forces  to  follow  up  the 
war  with  the  Dutch,  which  had  now  become  a  secondary  ob- 
ject, while  he  himself  went,  at  the  head  of  fifty  thousand  men 
of  the  Armada  and  the  flotilla,  to  accomplish  the  principal 


248  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1588 

enterprise  —  that  enterprise  which  in  the  highest  degree 
affected  the  interests  of  the  pontifical  authority.  In  a  bull, 
intended  to  be  kept  secret  until  the  day  of  landing,  Sixtus  V., 
renewing  the  anathema  fulminated  against  Elizabeth  by  Pius 
V.  and  Gregory  XIII.,  affected  to  depose  her  from  our  throne. 
Elizabeth  was  denounced  as  a  murderous  heretic  whose 
destruction  was  an  instant  duty.  A  formal  treaty  was  con- 
cluded (in  June,  1587),  by  which  the  pope  bound  himself  to 
contribute  a  million  of  scudi  to  the  expenses  of  the  war ;  the 
money  to  be  paid  as  soon  as  the  king  had  actual  possession 
of  an  English  port.  Philip,  on  his  part,  strained  the  resources 
of  his  vast  empire  to  the  utmost.  The  French  Catholic  chiefs 
eagerly  cooperated  with  him.  In  the  seaports  of  the  Medi- 
terranean, and  along  almost  the  whole  coast  from  Gibraltar 
to  Jutland,  the  preparations  for  the  great  armament  were 
urged  forward  with  all  the  earnestness  of  religious  zeal  as 
well  as  of  angry  ambition.  "Thus,"  says  the  German  his- 
torian of  the  popes  [Ranke],  "thus  did  the  united  powers  of 
Italy  and  Spain,  from  which  such  mighty  influences  had  gone 
forth  over  the  whole  world,  now  rouse  themselves  for  an  at- 
tack upon  England !  The  king  had  already  compiled,  from 
the  archives  of  Simancas,  a  statement  of  the  claims  which  he 
had  to  the  throne  of  that  country  on  the  extinction  of  the 
Stuart  line ;  the  most  brilliant  prospects,  especially  that  of  a 
universal  dominion  of  the  seas,  were  associated  in  his  mind 
with  this  enterprise.  Everything  seemed  to  conspire  to  such 
end  :  the  predominance  of  Catholicism  in  Germany,  the  re- 
newed attack  upon  the  Huguenots  in  France,  the  attempt 
upon  Geneva,  and  the  enterprise  against  England.  At  the 
same  moment  a  thoroughly  Catholic  prince,  Sigismund  III., 
ascended  the  throne  of  Poland,  with  the  prospect  also  of 
future  succession  to  the  throne  of  Sweden.  But  whenever 
any  principle  or  power,  be  it  what  it  may,  aims  at  unlimited 
supremacy  in  Europe,  some  vigorous  resistance  to  it,  having 
its  origin  in  the  deepest  springs  of  human  nature,  invariably 
arises.  Philip  II.  had  had  to  encounter  newly  awakened 
powers,  braced  by  the  vigor  of  youth,  and  elevated  by  a  sense 
of  their  future  destiny.  The  intrepid  corsairs,  who  had  ren- 
dered every  sea  insecure,  now  clustered  round  the  coasts  of 
their  native  island.     The  Protestants  in  a  body  —  even  the 


1588]  DEFEAT   OF   THE   ARMADA  249 

Puritans,  although  they  had  been  subjected  to  as  severe 
oppressions  as  the  Catholics  —  rallied  round  their  queen, 
who  now  gave  admirable  proof  of  her  masculine  courage  and 
her  princely  talent  of  winning  the  affections  and  leading  the 
minds  and  preserving  the  allegiance  of  men." 

Ranke  should  have  added  that  the  English  Catholics  at  this 
crisis  proved  themselves  as  loyal  to  their  queen,  and  true  to 
their  country,  as  were  the  most  vehement  anti-Catholic  zealots 
in  the  island.  Some  few  traitors  there  were ;  but,  as  a  body, 
the  Englishmen  who  held  the  ancient  faith  stood  the  trial  of 
their  patriotism  nobly.  The  lord  admiral  himself  was  a  Cath- 
olic, and  (to  adopt  the  words  of  Hallam)  "  then  it  was  that 
the  Catholics  in  every  county  repaired  to  the  standard  of  the 
lord  lieutenant,  imploring  that  they  might  not  be  suspected  of 
bartering  the  national  independence  for  their  religion  itself." 
The  Spaniard  found  no  partisans  in  the  country  which  he 
assailed,  nor  did  England,  self-wounded, 

"  Lie  at  the  proud  foot  of  her  enemy." 

For  some  time  the  destination  of  the  enormous  armament 
of  Philip  was  not  publicly  announced.  Only  Philip  himself, 
the  Pope  Sixtus,  the  Duke  of  Guise,  and  Philip's  favorite 
minister,  Mendoza,  at  first  knew  its  real  object.  Rumors 
were  sedulously  spread  that  it  was  designed  to  proceed  to 
the  Indies  to  realize  vast  projects  of  distant  conquest.  Some- 
times hints  were  dropped  by  Philip's  ambassadors  in  foreign 
courts  that  his  master  had  resolved  on  a  decisive  effort  to 
crush  his  rebels  in  the  Low  Countries.  But  Elizabeth  and 
her  statesmen  could  not  view  the  gathering  of  such  a  storm 
without  feeling  the  probability  of  its  bursting  on  their  own 
shores.  As  early  as  the  spring  of  1587,  Elizabeth  sent  Sir 
Francis  Drake  to  cruise  off  the  Tagus.  Drake  sailed  into 
the  Bay  of  Cadiz  and  the  Lisbon  Roads,  and  burned  much 
shipping  and  military  stores,  causing  thereby  an  important 
delay  in  the  progress  of  the  Spanish  preparations.  Drake 
called  this  "  singeing  the  king  of  Spain's  beard."  Elizabeth 
also  increased  her  succors  of  troops  to  the  Netherlanders,  to 
prevent  the  Prince  of  Parma  from  overwhelming  them  and 
from  thence  being  at  full  leisure  to  employ  his  army  against 
her  dominions. 


250  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1588 

Each  party  at  this  time  thought  it  politic  to  try  to  amuse  its 
adversary  by  pretending  to  treat  for  peace,  and  negotiations 
were  opened  at  Ostend  in  the  beginning  of  1588,  which  were 
prolonged  during  the  first  six  months  of  that  year.  Nothing 
real  was  effected,  and  probably  nothing  real  had  been  intended 
to  be  effected,  by  them.  But,  in  the  mean  time,  each  party 
had  been  engaged  in  important  communications  with  the 
chief  powers  in  France,  in  which  Elizabeth  seemed  at  first  to 
have  secured  a  great  advantage,  but  in  which  Philip  ultimately 
prevailed.  "  Henry  III.  of  France  was  alarmed  at  the  nego- 
tiations that  were  going  on  at  Ostend ;  and  he  especially 
dreaded  any  accommodation  between  Spain  and  England,  in 
consequence  of  which  Philip  II.  might  be  enabled  to  subdue 
the  United  Provinces  and  make  himself  master  of  France. 
In  order,  therefore,  to  dissuade  Elizabeth  from  any  arrange- 
ment, he  offered  to  support  her,  in  case  she  were  attacked  by 
the  Spaniards,  with  twice  the  number  of  troops  which  he  was 
bound  by  the  treaty  of  1574  to  send  to  her  assistance.  He 
had  a  long  conference  with  her  ambassador,  Stafford,  upon 
this  subject,  and  told  him  that  the  pope  and  the  Catholic  king 
had  entered  into  a  league  against  the  queen,  his  mistress, 
and  had  invited  himself  and  the  Venetians  to  join  them,  but 
they  had  refused  to  do  so.  '  If  the  queen  of  England,'  he 
added,  '  concludes  a  peace  with  the  Catholic  king,  that  peace 
will  not  last  three  months,  because  the  Catholic  king  will  aid 
the  League  with  all  his  forces  to  overthrow  her,  and  you  may 
imagine  what  fate  is  reserved  for  your  mistress  after  that.' 
On  the  other  hand,  in  order  most  effectually  to  frustrate  this 
negotiation,  he  proposed  to  Philip  II.  to  form  a  still  closer 
union  between  the  two  crowns  of  France  and  Spain ;  and,  at 
the  same  time,  he  secretly  despatched  a  confidential  envoy 
to  Constantinople  to  warn  the  sultan  that,  if  he  did  not  again 
declare  war  against  the  Catholic  king,  that  monarch,  who 
already  possessed  the  Netherlands,  Portugal,  Spain,  the 
Indies,  and  nearly  all  Italy,  would  soon  make  himself  master 
of  England,  and  would  then  turn  the  forces  of  all  Europe 
against  the  Turks."     [Mignet] 

But  Philip  had  an  ally  in  France  who  was  far  more  power- 
ful than  the  French  king.  This  was  the  Duke  of  Guise,  the 
chief  of  the  League,  and  the  idol  of  the  fanatic  partisans  of 


1588]  DEFEAT   OF   THE   ARMADA  251 

the  Romish  faith.  Philip  prevailed  on  Guise  openly  to  take 
up  arms  against  Henry  III.  (who  was  reviled  by  the  Leaguers 
as  a  traitor  to  the  true  Church  and  a  secret  friend  to  the  Hu- 
guenots), and  thus  prevent  the  French  king  from  interfering 
in  favor  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  "  With  this  object,  the  com- 
mander, Juan  Iniguez  Moreo,  was  despatched  by  him  in  the 
early  part  of  April  to  the  Duke  of  Guise  at  Soissons.  He 
met  with  complete  success.  He  offered  the  Duke  of  Guise, 
as  soon  as  he  took  the  field  against  Henry  III.,  three  hundred 
thousand  crowns,  six  thousand  infantry,  and  twelve  hundred 
pikemen,  on  behalf  of  the  king  his  master,  who  would,  in  addi- 
tion, withdraw  his  ambassador  from  the  court  of  France,  and 
accredit  an  envoy  to  the  Catholic  party.  A  treaty  was  con- 
cluded on  these  conditions,  and  the  Duke  of  Guise  entered 
Paris,  where  he  was  expected  by  the  Leaguers,  and  whence 
he  expelled  Henry  III.  on  the  12th  of  May  by  the  insurrec- 
tion of  the  barricades.  A  fortnight  after  this  insurrection, 
which  reduced  Henry  III.  to  impotence,  and,  to  use  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Prince  of  Parma,  did  not  even  '  permit  him  to 
assist  the  queen  of  England  with  his  tears,  as  he  needed 
them  all  to  weep  over  his  own  misfortunes,'  the  Spanish  fleet 
left  the  Tagus  and  sailed  towards  the  British  isles."  [Mignet.] 
Meanwhile  in  England,  from  the  sovereign  on  the  throne  to 
the  peasant  in  the  cottage,  all  hearts  and  hands  made  ready 
to  meet  the  imminent  deadly  peril.  Circular  letters  from  the 
queen  were  sent  round  to  the  lord  lieutenants  of  the  several 
counties  requiring  them  "to  call  together  the  best  sort  of 
gentlemen  under  their  lieutenancy,  and  to  declare  unto  them 
these  great  preparations  and  arrogant  threatenings,  now  burst 
forth  in  action  upon  the  seas,  wherein  every  man's  particular 
state,  in  the  highest  degree,  could  be  touched  in  respect  of 
country,  liberty,  wives,  children,  lands,  lives,  and  (which  was 
specially  to  be  regarded)  the  profession  of  the  true  and  sin- 
cere religion  of  Christ ;  and  to  lay  before  them  the  infinite 
and  unspeakable  miseries  that  would  fall  out  upon  any  such 
change,  which  miseries  were  evidently  seen  by  the  fruits  of 
that  hard  and  cruel  government  holden  in  countries  not  far 
distant.  We  do  look,"  said  the  queen,  "that  the  most  part 
of  them  should  have,  upon  this  instant  extraordinary  occa- 
sion, a  larger  proportion  of  furniture,  both  for  horsemen  and 


252  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1588 

footmen,  but  especially  horsemen,  than  hath  been  certified ; 
thereby  to  be  in  their  best  strength  against  any  attempt,  or  to 
be  employed  about  our  own  person,  or  otherwise.  Hereunto 
as  we  doubt  not  but  by  your  good  endeavors  they  will  be  the 
rather  conformable,  so  also  we  assure  ourselves  that  Almighty 
God  will  so  bless  these  their  loyal  hearts  borne  towards  us, 
their  loving  sovereign  and  their  natural  country,  that  all  the 
attempts  of  any  enemy  whatsoever  shall  be  made  void  and  frus- 
trate, to  their  confusion,  your  comfort,  and  to  God's  high  glory." 

Letters  of  a  similar  kind  were  also  sent  by  the  council  to 
each  of  the  nobility  and  to  the  great  cities.  The  primate 
called  on  the  clergy  for  their  contributions;  and  by  every 
class  of  the  community  the  appeal  was  responded  to  with  lib- 
eral zeal,  that  offered  more  even  than  the  queen  required. 
The  boasting  threats  of  the  Spaniards  had  roused  the  spirit 
of  the  nation ;  and  the  whole  people  "  were  thoroughly  irri- 
tated to  stir  up  their  whole  forces  for  their  defense  against 
such  prognosticated  conquests ;  so  that,  in  a  very  short  time, 
all  the  whole  realm,  and  every  corner,  were  furnished  with 
armed  men,  on  horseback  and  on  foot ;  and  these  continually 
trained,  exercised,  and  put  into  bands,  in  warlike  manner,  as 
in  no  age  ever  was  before  in  this  realm.  There  was  no  spar- 
ing of  money  to  provide  horse,  armor,  weapons,  powder,  and 
all  necessaries;  no,  nor  want  of  provision  of  pioneers,  car- 
riages, and  victuals,  in  every  county  of  the  realm,  without 
exception,  to  attend  upon  the  armies.  And  to  this  general 
furniture  every  man  voluntarily  offered,  very  many  their 
services  personally  without  wages,  others  money  for  armor 
and  weapons,  and  to  wage  soldiers :  a  matter  strange,  and 
never  the  like  heard  of  in  this  realm  or  elsewhere.  And  this 
general  reason  moved  all  men  to  large  contributions,  that 
when  a  conquest  was  to  be  withstood  wherein  all  should  be 
lost,  it  was  no  time  to  spare  a  portion."     [Southey.] 

Our  lion-hearted  queen  showed  herself  worthy  of  such  a 
people.  A  camp  was  formed  at  Tilbury ;  and  there  Eliza- 
beth rode  through  the  ranks,  encouraging  her  captains  and 
her  soldiers  by  her  presence  and  her  words.  One  of  the 
speeches  which  she  addressed  to  them  during  this  crisis  has 
been  preserved;  and,  though  often  quoted,  it  must  not  be 
omitted  here. 


1588]  DEFEAT   OF   THE   ARMADA  253 

"My  loving  people,"  she  said,  "we  have  been  persuaded 
by  some  that  are  careful  of  our  safety  to  take  heed  how  we 
commit  ourselves  to  armed  multitudes  for  fear  of  treachery ; 
but  I  assure  you  I  do  not  desire  to  live  to  distrust  my  faith- 
ful and  loving  people.  Let  tyrants  fear !  I  have  always  so 
behaved  myself,  that,  under  God,  I  have  placed  my  chiefest 
strength  and  safeguard  in  the  loyal  hearts  and  good-will  of 
my  subjects ;  and,  therefore,  I  am  come  amongst  you,  as  you 
see,  at  this  time,  not  for  my  recreation  or  disport,  but  being 
resolved,  in  the  midst  and  heat  of  the  battle,  to  live  or  die 
amongst  you  all,  to  lay  down  for  my  God,  for  my  kingdom, 
and  for  my  people,  my  honor  and  my  blood,  even  in  the  dust. 
I  know  I  have  the  body  but  of  a  weak  and  feeble  woman,  but 
I  have  the  heart  and  stomach  of  a  king,  and  of  a  king  of 
England  too ;  and  think  it  foul  scorn  that  Parma,  or  Spain, 
or  any  prince  of  Europe,  should  dare  to  invade  the  borders 
of  my  realm  ;  to  which,  rather  than  any  dishonor  shall  grow 
by  me,  I  myself  will  take  up  arms,  I  myself  will  be  your  gen- 
eral, judge,  and  rewarder  of  every  one  of  your  virtues  in  the 
field.  I  know  already  for  your  forwardness  you  have  de- 
served rewards  and  crowns ;  and  we  do  assure  you,  on  the 
word  of  a  prince,  they  shall  be  duly  paid  you.  In  the  mean 
time  my  lieutenant-general  shall  be  in  my  stead,  than  whom 
never  prince  commanded  a  more  noble  or  worthy  subject,  not 
doubting  but  by  your  obedience  to  my  general,  by  your  con- 
cord in  the  camp,  and  your  valor  in  the  field,  we  shall  shortly 
have  a  famous  victory  over  those  enemies  of  my  God,  of  my 
kingdom,  and  of  my  people." 

We  have  minute  proofs  of  the  skill  with  which  the  govern- 
ment of  Elizabeth  made  its  preparations  ;  for  the  documents 
still  exist  which  were  drawn  up  at  that  time  by  the  ministers 
and  military  men  who  were  consulted  by  Elizabeth  respecting 
the  defense  of  the  country.  Among  those  summoned  to  the 
advice  of  their  queen  at  this  crisis  were  Sir  Walter  Raleigh, 
Lord  Grey,  Sir  Francis  Knolles,  Sir  Thomas  Leighton,  Sir 
John  Norris,  Sir  Richard  Grenville,  Sir  Richard  Bingham, 
and  Sir  Roger  Williams  ;  and  the  biographer  of  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh  observes  that  "these  councilors  were  chosen  by 
the  queen,  as  being  not  only  men  bred  to  arms,  and  some  of 
them,  as  Grey,  Norris,  Bingham,  and  Grenville,  of  high  mili- 


254  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1588 

tary  talents,  but  of  grave  experience  in  affairs  of  state,  and 
in  the  civil  government  of  provinces  —  qualities  by  no  means 
unimportant,  when  the  debate  referred  not  merely  to  the  lead- 
ing of  an  army  or  the  plan  of  a  campaign,  but  to  the  organi- 
zation of  a  militia,  and  the  communication  with  the  magistrates 
for  arming  the  peasantry,  and  encouraging  them  to  a  resolute 
and  simultaneous  resistance.  From  some  private  papers  of 
Lord  Burleigh,  it  appears  that  Sir  Walter  took  a  principal 
share  in  these  deliberations  ;  and  the  abstract  of  their  pro- 
ceedings, a  document  still  preserved,  is  supposed  to  have  been 
drawn  up  by  him.  They  first  prepared  a  list  of  places  where 
it  was  likely  the  Spanish  army  might  attempt  a  descent,  as 
well  as  of  those  which  lay  most  exposed  to  the  force  under 
the  Duke  of  Parma.  They  next  considered  the  speediest  and 
most  effectual  means  of  defense,  whether  by  fortification  or 
the  muster  of  a  military  array ;  and,  lastly,  deliberated  on  the 
course  to  be  taken  for  fighting  the  enemy  if  he  should  land." 
Some  of  Elizabeth's  advisers  recommended  that  the  whole 
care  and  resources  of  the  government  should  be  devoted  to 
the  equipment  of  the  armies,  and  that  the  enemy,  when  he 
attempted  to  land,  should  be  welcomed  with  a  battle  on  the 
shore.  But  the  wiser  counsels  of  Raleigh  and  others  pre- 
vailed, who  urged  the  importance  of  fitting  out  a  fleet,  that 
should  encounter  the  Spaniards  at  sea,  and,  if  possible,  pre- 
vent them  from  approaching  the  land  at  all.  In  Raleigh's 
great  work  on  the  "  History  of  the  World,"  he  takes  occa- 
sion, when  discussing  some  of  the  events  of  the  first  Punic 
war,  to  give  his  reasonings  on  the  proper  policy  of  England 
when  menaced  with  invasion.  Without  doubt,  we  have  there 
the  substance  of  the  advice  which  he  gave  to  Elizabeth's 
council ;  and  the  remarks  of  such  a  man,  on  such  a  subject, 
have  a  general  and  enduring  interest,  beyond  the  immediate 
peril  which  called  them  forth.  Raleigh  says  :  "  Surely  I  hold 
that  the  best  way  is  to  keep  our  enemies  from  treading  upon 
our  ground :  wherein  if  we  fail,  then  must  we  seek  to  make 
him  wish  that  he  had  stayed  at  his  own  home.  In  such  a 
case  if  it  should  happen,  our  judgments  are  to  weigh  many 
particular  circumstances,  that  belongs  not  unto  this  discourse. 
But  making  the  question  general,  the  positive,  Whether  Eng- 
land, without  the  help  of  her  fleet,  be  able  to  debar  an  enemy 


1588]  DEFEAT    OF   THE   ARMADA  255 

from  landing ;  I  hold  that  it  is  unable  so  to  do  ;  and  therefore 
I  think  it  most  dangerous  to  make  the  adventure.  For  the 
encouragement  of  a  first  victory  to  an  enemy,  and  the  dis- 
couragement of  being  beaten,  to  the  invaded,  may  draw  after 
it  a  most  perilous  consequence. 

"  Great  difference  I  know  there  is,  and  a  diverse  considera- 
tion to  be  had,  between  such  a  country  as  France  is,  strength- 
ened with  many  fortified  places,  and  this  of  ours,  where  our 
ramparts  are  but  the  bodies  of  men.  But  I  say  that  an  army 
to  be  transported  over  sea,  and  to  be  landed  again  in  an 
enemy's  country,  and  the  place  left  to  the  choice  of  the 
invader,  cannot  be  resisted  on  the  coast  of  England,  without 
a  fleet  to  impeach  it ;  no,  nor  on  the  coast  of  France,  or  any 
other  country  ;  except  every  creek,  port,  or  sandy  bay  had  a 
powerful  army  in  each  of  them,  to  make  opposition.  For  let 
the  supposition  be  granted  that  Kent  is  able  to  furnish  twelve 
thousand  foot,  and  that  those  twelve  thousand  be  layed  in  the 
three  best  landing-places  within  that  county,  to  wit,  three 
thousand  at  Margat,  three  thousand  at  the  Nesse,  and  six 
thousand  at  Foulkstone,  that  is,  somewhat  equally  distant 
from  them  both ;  as  also  that  two  of  these  troops  (unless 
some  other  order  be  thought  more  fit)  be  directed  to  strengthen 
the  third,  when  they  shall  see  the  enemies'  fleet  to  head 
towards  it :  I  say,  that  notwithstanding  this  provision,  if  the 
enemy,  setting  sail  from  the  Isle  of  Wight  in  the  first  watch 
of  the  night,  and  towing  their  long  boats  at  their  sterns,  shall 
arrive  by  dawn  of  day  at  the  Nesse,  and  thrust  their  army  on 
shore  there,  it  will  be  hard  for  those  three  thousand  that  are 
at  Margat  (twenty-and-four  long  miles  from  thence)  to  come 
time  enough  to  reinforce  their  fellows  at  the  Nesse.  Nay, 
how  shall  they  at  Foulkstone  be  able  to  do  it,  who  are  nearer 
by  more  than  half  the  way  ?  seeing  that  the  enemy,  at  his 
first  arrival,  will  either  make  his  entrance  by  force,  with  three 
or  four  shot  of  great  artillery,  and  quickly  put  the  first  three 
thousand  that  are  entrenched  at  the  Nesse  to  run,  or  else  give 
them  so  much  to  do  that  they  shall  be  glad  to  send  for  help 
to  Foulkstone,  and  perhaps  to  Margat,  whereby  those  places 
will  be  left  bare.  Now  let  us  suppose  that  all  the  twelve 
thousand  Kentish  soldiers  arrive  at  the  Nesse,  ere  the  enemy 
can  be  ready  to  disembark  his  army,  so  that  he  will  find  it 


256  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1588 

unsafe  to  land  in  the  face  of  so  many  prepared  to  withstand 
him,  yet  must  we  believe  that  he  will  play  the  best  of  his  own 
game  (having  liberty  to  go  which  way  he  list),  and,  under 
covert  of  the  night,  set  sail  towards  the  east,  where  what 
shall  hinder  him  to  take  ground  either  at  Margat,  the 
Downes,  or  elsewhere,  before  they,  at  the  Nesse,  can  be  well 
aware  of  his  departure  ?  Certainly  there  is  nothing  more 
easy  than  to  do  it.  Yea,  the  like  may  be  said  of  Weymouth, 
Purbeck,  Poole,  and  of  all  landing-places  on  the  southwest. 
For  there  is  no  man  ignorant  that  ships,  without  putting 
themselves  out  of  breath,  will  easily  outrun  the  souldiers  that 
coast  them.  '  Les  armees  ne  volent  point  en  poste '  — '  Armies 
neither  flye,  nor  run  post '  —  saith  a  marshal  of  France.  And 
I  know  it  to  be  true,  that  a  fleet  of  ships  may  be  seen  at  sun- 
set, and  after  it  at  the  Lizard,  yet  by  the  next  morning  they 
may  recover  Portland,  whereas  an  army  of  foot  shall  not  be 
able  to  march  it  in  six  dayes.  Again,  when  those  troops 
lodged  on  the  seashores  shall  be  forced  to  run  from  place  to 
place  in  vain,  after  a  fleet  of  ships,  they  will  at  length  sit 
down  in  the  midway,  and  leave  all  at  adventure.  But  say  it 
were  otherwise,  that  the  invading  enemy  will  offer  to  land  in 
some  such  place,  where  there  shall  be  an  army  of  ours  ready 
to  receive  him  ;  yet  it  cannot  be  doubted,  but  that  when  the 
choice  of  all  our  trained  bands,  and  the  choice  of  our  com- 
manders and  captains,  shall  be  drawn  together  (as  they  were 
at  Tilbury  in  the  year  1588)  to  attend  the  person  of  the 
prince,  and  for  the  defence  of  the  city  of  London,  they  that 
remain  to  guard  the  coast  can  be  of  no  such  force  as  to 
encounter  an  army  like  unto  that  wherewith  it  was  intended 
that  the  Prince  of  Parma  should  have  landed  in  England. 

"  For  end  of  this  digression,  I  hope  that  this  question  shall 
never  come  to  trial;  his  majestie's  many  moveable  forts  will 
forbid  the  experience.  And  although  the  English  will  no  less 
disdain  that  any  nation  under  heaven  can  do,  to  be  beaten, 
upon  their  own  ground,  or  elsewhere,  by  a  foreign  enemy  ;  yet 
to  entertain  those  that  shall  assail  us  with  their  own  beef  in 
their  bellies,  and  before  they  eat  of  our  Kentish  capons,  I  take 
it  to  be  the  wisest  way ;  to  do  which  his  majestie,  after  God, 
will  employ  his  good  ships  on  the  sea,  and  not  trust  in  any 
intrenchment  upon  the  shore." 


1588]  DEFEAT   OF   THE   ARMADA  257 

The  introduction  of  steam  as  a  propelling  power  at  sea  has 
added  tenfold  weight  to  these  arguments  of  Raleigh.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  well-constructed  system  of  railways,  especially 
of  coast  lines,  aided  by  the  operation  of  the  electric  telegraph, 
would  give  facilities  for  concentrating  a  defensive  army  to 
oppose  an  enemy  on  landing,  and  for  moving  troops  from 
place  to  place  in  observation  of  the  movements  of  the  hostile 
fleet,  such  as  would  have  astonished  Sir  Walter  even  more 
than  the  sight  of  vessels  passing  rapidly  to  and  fro  without 
the  aid  of  wind  or  tide.  The  observation  of  the  French  mar- 
shal, whom  he  quotes,  is  now  no  longer  correct.  Armies  can 
be  made  to  pass  from  place  to  place  almost  with  the  speed  of 
wings,  and  far  more  rapidly  than  any  post  traveling  that  was 
known  in  the  Elizabethan  or  any  other  age.  Still,  the  pres- 
ence of  a  sufficient  armed  force  at  the  right  spot,  at  the  right 
time,  can  never  be  made  a  matter  of  certainty ;  and  even  after 
the  changes  that  have  taken  place,  no  one  can  doubt  but  that 
the  policy  of  Raleigh  is  that  which  England  should  ever  seek 
to  follow  in  defensive  war.  At  the  time  of  the  Armada,  that 
policy  certainly  saved  the  country,  if  not  from  conquest,  at 
least  from  deplorable  calamities.  If  indeed  the  enemy  had 
landed,  we  may  be  sure  that  he  would  have  been  heroically 
opposed.  But  history  shows  us  so  many  examples  of  the 
superiority  of  veteran  troops  over  new  levies,  however  numer- 
ous and  brave,  that  without  disparaging  our  countrymen's 
soldierly  merits,  we  may  well  be  thankful  that  no  trial  of 
them  was  then  made  on  English  land.  Especially  must  we 
feel  this  when  we  contrast  the  high  military  genius  of  the 
Prince  of  Parma,  who  would  have  headed  the  Spaniards,  with 
the  imbecility  of  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  to  whom  the  deplorable 
spirit  of  favoritism,  which  formed  the  greatest  blemish  in 
Elizabeth's  character,  had  then  committed  the  chief  command 
of  the  English  armies. 

The  ships  of  the  royal  navy  at  this  time  amounted  to  no 
more  than  thirty-six ;  but  the  most  serviceable  merchant  ves- 
sels were  collected  from  all  the  ports  of  the  country ;  and  the 
citizens  of  London,  Bristol,  and  the  other  great  seats  of  com- 
merce showed  as  liberal  a  zeal  in  equipping  and  manning  ves- 
sels as  the  nobility  and  gentry  displayed  in  mustering  forces 
by  land.     The  seafaring  population  of  the  coast,  of  every 


258  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1588 

rank  and  station,  was  animated  by  the  same  ready  spirit ;  and 
the  whole  number  of  seamen  who  came  forward  to  man  the 
English  fleet  was  17,472.  The  number  of  the  ships  that  were 
collected  was  191  ;  and  the  total  amount  of  their  tonnage 
31,985.  There  was  one  ship  in  the  fleet  (the  Triumph)  of 
1 100  tons,  one  of  1000,  one  of  900,  two  of  800  each,  three  of 
600,  five  of  500,  five  of  400,  six  of  300,  six  of  250,  twenty 
of  200,  and  the  residue  of  inferior  burden.  Application  was 
made  to  the  Dutch  for  assistance ;  and,  as  Stowe  expresses 
it,  "  the  Hollanders  came  roundly  in,  with  threescore  sail, 
brave  ships  of  war,  fierce  and  full  of  spleen,  not  so  much 
for  England's  aid,  as  in  just  occasion  for  their  own  defense, 
these  men  foreseeing  the  greatness  of  the  danger  that  might 
ensue  if  the  Spaniards  should  chance  to  win  the  day  and  get 
the  mastery  over  them ;  in  due  regard  whereof  their  manly 
courage  was  inferior  to  none." 

We  have  more  minute  information  of  the  numbers  and 
equipment  of  the  hostile  forces  than  we  have  of  our  own. 
In  the  first  volume  of  Hakluyt's  "Voyages,"  dedicated  to 
Lord  Effingham,  who  commanded  against  the  Armada,  there 
is  given  (from  the  contemporary  foreign  writer  Meteran)  a 
more  complete  and  detailed  catalogue  than  has  perhaps  ever 
appeared  of  a  similar  armament. 

"  A  very  large  and  particular  description  of  this  navie  was 
put  in  print  and  published  by  the  Spaniards  ;  wherein  was  set 
downe  the  number,  names,  and  burthens  of  the  shippes,  the 
number  of  mariners  and  souldiers  throughout  the  whole 
fleete ;  likewise  the  quantitie  of  their  ordinance,  of  their 
armour,  of  bullets,  of  match,  of  gun-poulder,  of  victuals, 
and  of  all  their  navall  furniture,  was  in  the  saide  description 
particularized.  Unto  all  these  were  added  the  names  of  the 
governours,  captaines,  noblemen,  and  gentlemen  voluntaries, 
of  whom  there  was  so  great  a  multitude,  that  scarce  was  there 
any  family  of  accompt,  or  any  one  principall  man  throughout 
all  Spaine,  that  had  not  a  brother,  sonne,  or  kinsman  in  that 
fleete ;  who  all  of  them  were  in  good  hope  to  purchase  unto 
themselves  in  that  navie  (as  they  termed  it)  invincible,  end- 
less glory  and  renown,  and  to  possess  themselves  of  great 
seigniories  and  riches  in  England,  and  in  the  Low  Countreys. 
But  because  the  said  description  was  translated  and  published 


1588]  DEFEAT   OF   THE   ARMADA  259 

out  of  Spanish  into  divers  other  languages,  we  will  here  only 
make  an  abridgement  or  brief  rehearsal  thereof. 

"Portugal  furnished  and  set  foorth  under  the  conduct  of 
the  Duke  of  Medina  Sidonia,  generall  of  the  fleete,  ten 
galeons,  two  zabraes,  1300  mariners,  3300  souldiers,  300  great 
pieces,  with  all  requisite  furniture. 

"  Biscay,  under  the  conduct  of  John  Martines  de  Ricalde, 
admiral  of  the  whole  fleete,  set  forth  tenne  galeons,  four 
pataches,  700  mariners,  2000  souldiers,  260  great  pieces,  etc. 

"  Guipusco,  under  the  conduct  of  Michael  de  Orquendo, 
tenne  galeons,  four  pataches,  700  mariners,  2000  souldiers, 
310  great  pieces. 

"  Italy  with  the  Levant  islands,  under  Martine  de  Verten- 
dona,  ten  galeons,  800  mariners,  2000  souldiers,  310  great 
pieces,  &c. 

"  Castile,  under  Diego  Flores  de  Valdez,  fourteen  galeons, 
two  pataches,  1700  mariners,  2400  souldiers,  and  380  great 
pieces,  &c. 

"  Andaluzia,  under  the  conduct  of  Petro  de  Valdez,  ten 
galeons,  one  patache,  800  mariners,  2400  souldiers,  280  great 
pieces,  &c. 

"  Item,  under  the  conduct  of  John  Lopez  de  Medina, 
twenty-three  great  Flemish  hulkes,  with  700  mariners,  3200 
souldiers,  and  400  great  pieces. 

"  Item,  under  Hugo  de  Moncada,  foure  galliasses,  contain- 
ing 1 200  gally-slaves,  460  mariners,  870  souldiers,  200  great 
pieces,  &c. 

"  Item,  under  Diego  de  Mandrana,  foure  gallies  of  Portu- 
gall,  with  888  gally-slaves,  360  mariners,  twenty  great  pieces, 
and  other  requisite  furniture. 

"  Item,  under  Anthonie  de  Mendoza,  twenty-two  pataches 
and  zabraes,  with  574  mariners,  488  souldiers,  and  193  great 
pieces. 

"  Besides  the  ships  aforementioned,  there  were  twenty 
caravels  rowed  with  oares,  being  appointed  to  perform  neces- 
sary services  under  the  greater  ships,  insomuch  that  all  the 
ships  appertayning  to  this  navie  amounted  unto  the  summe 
of  1 50,  eche  one  being  sufficiently  provided  of  furniture  and 
victuals. 

"The  number  of  mariners  in  the  saide  fleete  were  above 


260  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1588 

8000,  of  slaves  2088,  of  souldiers  20,000  (besides  noblemen 
and  gentlemen  voluntaries),  of  great  cast  pieces  2600.  The 
aforesaid  ships  were  of  an  huge  and  incredible  capacitie  and 
receipt :  for  the  whole  fleete  was  large  enough  to  containe  the 
burthen  of  60,000  tunnes. 

"  The  galeons  were  64  in  number,  being  of  an  huge  big- 
nesse,  and  very  flately  built,  being  of  marveilous  force  also, 
and  so  high,  that  they  resembled  great  castles,  most  fit  to  de- 
fend themselves  and  to  withstand  any  assault,  but  in  giving 
any  other  ships  the  encounter  farr  inferiour  unto  the  English 
and  Dutch  ships,  which  can  with  great  dexteritie  weild  and 
turne  themselves  at  all  assayes.  The  upperworke  of  the  said 
galeons  was  of  thicknesse  and  strength  sufficient  to  bear  off 
musket-shot.  The  lower  worke  and  the  timbers  thereof  were 
out  of  measure  strong,  being  framed  of  plankes  and  ribs  foure 
or  five  foote  in  thicknesse,  insomuch  that  no  bullets  could 
pierce  them,  but  such  as  were  discharged  hard  at  hand ; 
which  afterward  prooved  true,  for  a  great  number  of  bullets 
were  found  to  sticke  fast  within  the  massie  substance  of  those 
thicke  plankes.  Great  and  well  pitched  cables  were  twined 
about  the  masts  of  their  shippes,  to  strengthen  them  against 
the  battery  of  shot. 

"  The  galliasses  were  of  such  bignesse,  that  they  contained 
within  them  chambers,  chapels,  turrets,  pulpits,  and  other 
commodities  of  great  houses.  The  galliasses  were  rowed  with 
great  oares,  there  being  in  eche  one  of  them  300  slaves  for 
the  same  purpose,  and  were  able  to  do  great  service  with  the 
force  of  their  ordinance.  All  these,  together  with  the  residue 
aforenamed,  were  furnished  and  beautified  with  trumpets, 
streamers,  banners,  warlike  ensignes,  and  other  such  like 
ornaments. 

"Their  pieces  of  brazen  ordinance  were  1600,  and  of  yron 
1000. 

"The  bullets  thereto  belonging  were  120  thousand. 

"Item  of  gun-poulder,  5600  quintals.  Of  matche,  1200 
quintals.  Of  muskets  and  kaleivers,  7000.  Of  haleberts  and 
partisans,  10,000. 

"  Moreover  they  had  great  store  of  canons,  double-canons, 
culverings  and  field-pieces  for  land  services. 

"  Likewise  they  were  provided  of  all  instruments  necessary 


1588]  DEFEAT   OF   THE   ARMADA  261 

on  land  to  conveigh  and  transport  their  furniture  from  place 
to  place  ;  as  namely  of  carts,  wheeles,  wagons,  &c.  Also  they 
had  spades,  mattocks,  and  baskets,  to  set  pioners  to  worke. 
They  had  in  like  sort  great  store  of  mules  and  horses,  and 
whatsoever  else  was  requisite  for  a  land-armie.  They  were 
so  well  stored  of  biscuit,  that  for  the  space  of  halfe  a  yeere, 
they  might  allow  eche  person  in  the  whole  fleete  halfe  a  quin- 
tall  every  month ;  whereof  the  whole  summe  amounteth  unto 
an  hundreth  thousand  quintals. 

"  Likewise  of  wine  they  had  147  thousand  pipes,  sufficient 
also  for  halfe  a  yeere's  expedition.  Of  bacon,  6500  quintals. 
Of  cheese,  three  thousand  quintals.  Besides  fish,  rise,  beanes, 
pease,  oile,  vinegar,  &c. 

"Moreover  they  had  12,000  pipes  of  fresh  water,  and  all 
other  necessary  provision,  as,  namely,  candles,  lanternes, 
lampes,  sailes,  hempe,  oxe-hides,  and  lead  to  stop  holes  that 
should  be  made  with  the  battery  of  gun-shot.  To  be  short, 
they  brought  all  things  expedient,  either  for  a  fleete  by  sea, 
or  for  an  armie  by  land. 

"  This  navie  (as  Diego  Pimentelli  afterward  confessed)  was 
esteemed  by  the  king  himselfe  to  containe  32,000  persons, 
and  to  cost  him  every  day  30  thousand  ducates. 

"  There  were  in  the  said  navie  five  terzaes  of  Spaniards 
(which  terzaes  the  Frenchmen  call  regiments),  under  the 
command  of  five  governours,  termed  by  the  Spaniards  mas- 
ters of  the  field,  and  amongst  the  rest  there  were  many  olde 
and  expert  souldiers  chosen  out  of  the  garrisons  of  Sicilie, 
Naples,  and  Tercera.  Their  captaines  or  colonels  were  Diego 
Pimentelli,  Don  Francisco  de  Toledo,  Don  Alonco  de  Lugon, 
Don  Nicolas  de  Isla,  Don  Augustin  de  Mexia ;  who  had  each 
of  them  thirty-two  companies  under  their  conduct.  Besides 
the  which  companies,  there  were  many  bands  also  of  Castil- 
ians  and  Portugals,  every  one  of  which  had  their  peculiar 
governours,  captains,  officers,  colours,  and  weapons." 

While  this  huge  Armada  was  making  ready  in  the  southern 
ports  of  the  Spanish  dominions,  the  Prince  of  Parma,  with 
almost  incredible  toil  and  skill,  collected  a  squadron  of  war- 
ships at  Dunkirk,  and  his  flotilla  of  other  ships  and  of  flat- 
bottomed  boats  for  the  transport  to  England  of  the  picked 
troops,  which  were  designed  to  be  the  main  instruments  in 


262  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1588 

subduing  England.  Thousands  of  workmen  were  employed, 
night  and  day,  in  the  construction  of  these  vessels,  in  the 
ports  of  Flanders  and  Brabant.  One  hundred  of  the  kind 
called  hendes,  built  at  Antwerp,  Bruges,  and  Ghent,  and 
laden  with  provision  and  ammunition,  together  with  sixty 
flat-bottomed  boats,  each  capable  of  carrying  thirty  horses, 
were  brought,  by  means  of  canals  and  fosses  dug  expressly 
for  the  purpose,  to  Nieuport  and  Dunkirk.  One  hundred 
smaller  vessels  were  equipped  at  the  former  place,  and  thirty- 
two  at  Dunkirk,  provided  with  twenty  thousand  empty  bar- 
rels, and  with  materials  for  making  pontoons,  for  stopping  up 
the  harbors,  and  raising  forts  and  entrenchments.  The  army 
which  these  vessels  were  designed  to  convey  to  England 
amounted  to  thirty  thousand  strong,  besides  a  body  of  four 
thousand  cavalry,  stationed  at  Courtroi,  composed  chiefly  of 
the  ablest  veterans  of  Europe ;  invigorated  by  rest  (the  siege 
of  Sluys  having  been  the  only  enterprise  in  which  they  were 
employed  during  the  last  campaign)  and  excited  by  the  hopes 
of  plunder  and  the  expectation  of  certain  conquest.  And 
"  to  this  great  enterprise  and  imaginary  conquest,  divers 
princes  and  noblemen  came  from  divers  countries ;  out  of 
Spain  came  the  Duke  of  Pestrafia,  who  was  said  to  be  the 
son  of  Ruy  Gomez  de  Silva,  but  was  held  to  be  the  king's 
bastard ;  the  Marquis  of  Bourgou,  one  of  the  Archduke 
Ferdinand's  sons,  by  Philippina  Welserine ;  Don  Vespasian 
Gonzaga,  of  the  house  of  Mantua,  a  great  soldier,  who  had 
been  viceroy  in  Spain ;  Giovanni  de  Medici,  Bastard  of  Flor- 
ence ;  Amedo,  Bastard  of  Savoy,  with  many  such  like,  besides 
others  of  meaner  quality."      [Grimstone.] 

Philip  had  been  advised  by  the  deserter,  Sir  William  Stan- 
ley, not  to  attack  England  in  the  first  instance,  but  first  to 
effect  a  landing  and  secure  a  strong  position  in  Ireland ;  his 
admiral,  Santa  Cruz,  had  recommended  him  to  make  sure,  in 
the  first  instance,  of  some  large  harbor  on  the  coast  of  Hol- 
land or  Zealand,  where  the  Armada,  having  entered  the 
Channel,  might  find  shelter  in  case  of  storm,  and  whence  it 
could  sail  without  difficulty  for  England ;  but  Philip  rejected 
both  these  counsels,  and  directed  that  England  itself  should 
be  made  the  immediate  object  of  attack ;  and  on  the  20th  of 
May  the  Armada  left  the  Tagus,  in  the  pomp  and  pride  of 


1588]  DEFEAT    OF   THE    ARMADA  263 

supposed  invincibility,  and  amid  the  shouts  of  thousands,  who 
believed  that  England  was  already  conquered.  But  steering 
to  the  northward,  and  before  it  was  clear  of  the  coast  of 
Spain,  the  Armada  was  assailed  by  a  violent  storm,  and 
driven  back  with  considerable  damage  to  the  ports  of  Biscay 
and  Galicia.  It  had,  however,  sustained  its  heaviest  loss  before 
it  left  the  Tagus,  in  the  death  of  the  veteran  admiral  Santa 
Cruz,  who  had  been  destined  to  guide  it  against  England. 

This  experienced  sailor,  notwithstanding  his  diligence  and 
success,  had  been  unable  to  keep  pace  with  the  impatient 
ardor  of  his  master.  Philip  II.  had  reproached  him  with  his 
dilatoriness,  and  had  said  with  ungrateful  harshness,  "  You 
make  an  ill  return  for  all  my  kindness  to  you."  These  words 
cut  the  veteran's  heart,  and  proved  fatal  to  Santa  Cruz. 
Overwhelmed  with  fatigue  and  grief,  he  sickened  and  died. 
Philip  II.  had  replaced  him  by  Alonzo  Perez  de  Gusman, 
Duke  of  Medina  Sidonia,  one  of  the  most  powerful  of  the 
Spanish  grandees,  but  wholly  unqualified  to  command  such 
an  expedition.  He  had,  however,  as  his  lieutenants,  two  sea- 
men of  proved  skill  and  bravery,  Juan  de  Martinez  Recalde 
of  Biscay,  and  Miguel  Orquendo  of  Guipuzcoa. 

The  report  of  the  storm  which  had  beaten  back  the  Armada 
reached  England  with  much  exaggeration,  and  it  was  supposed 
by  some  of  the  queen's  counselors  that  the  invasion  would 
now  be  deferred  to  another  year.  But  Lord  Howard  of 
Effingham,  the  lord  high  admiral  of  the  English  fleet,  judged 
more  wisely  that  the  danger  was  not  yet  passed,  and,  as 
already  mentioned,  had  the  moral  courage  to  refuse  to  dis- 
mantle his  principal  ships,  though  he  received  orders  to  that 
effect.  But  it  was  not  Howard's  design  to  keep  the  English 
fleet  in  costly  inaction,  and  to  wait  patiently  in  our  own  har- 
bors till  the  Spaniards  had  recruited  their  strength  and  sailed 
forth  again  to  attack  us.  The  English  seamen  of  that  age 
(like  their  successors)  loved  to  strike  better  than  to  parry, 
though,  when  emergency  required,  they  could  be  patient  and 
cautious  in  their  bravery.  It  was  resolved  to  proceed  to 
Spain  to  learn  the  enemy's  real  condition,  and  to  deal  him 
any  blow  for  which  there  might  be  opportunity.  In  this  bold 
policy  we  may  well  believe  him  to  have  been  eagerly  seconded 
by  those  who  commanded  under  him.      Howard  and  Drake 


264  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1588 

sailed  accordingly  to  Corunna,  hoping  to  surprise  and  attack 
some  part  of  the  Armada  in  that  harbor ;  but  when  near  the 
coast  of  Spain,  the  north  wind,  which  had  blown  up  to  that 
time,  veered  suddenly  to  the  south ;  and  fearing  that  the 
Spaniards  might  put  to  sea  and  pass  him  unobserved,  How- 
ard returned  to  the  entrance  of  the  Channel,  where  he  cruised 
for  some  time  on  the  lookout  for  the  enemy.  In  part  of  a 
letter  written  by  him  at  this  period,  he  speaks  of  the  difficulty 
of  guarding  so  large  a  breadth  of  sea  —  a  difficulty  that  ought 
not  to  be  forgotten  when  modern  schemes  of  defense  against 
hostile  fleets  from  the  south  are  discussed.  "  I  myself,"  he 
wrote,  "  do  lie  in  the  midst  of  the  Channel,  with  the  greatest 
force ;  Sir  Francis  Drake  hath  twenty  ships  and  four  or  five 
pinnaces,  which  lie  towards  Ushant;  and  Mr.  Hawkins,  with 
as  many  more,  lieth  towards  Scilly.  Thus  we  are  fain  to  do, 
or  else  with  this  wind  they  might  pass  us  by,  and  we  never 
the  wiser.  The  Sleeve  is  another  manner  of  thing  than  it 
was  taken  for  :  we  find  it  by  experience  and  daily  observation 
to  be  100  miles  over  —  a  large  room  for  me  to  look  unto!" 
But  after  some  time  further  reports  that  the  Spaniards  were 
inactive  in  their  harbor,  where  they  were  suffering  severely 
from  sickness,  caused  Howard  also  to  relax  in  his  vigilance  ; 
and  he  returned  to  Plymouth  with  the  greater  part  of  his 
fleet. 

On  the  1 2th  of  July,  the  Armada  having  completely  refitted, 
sailed  again  for  the  Channel,  and  reached  it  without  obstruc- 
tion or  observation  by  the  English. 

The  design  of  the  Spaniards  was,  that  the  Armada  should 
give  them,  at  least  for  a  time,  the  command  of  the  sea,  and 
that  it  should  join  the  squadron  which  Parma  had  collected 
off  Calais.  Then,  escorted  by  an  overpowering  naval  force, 
Parma  and  his  army  were  to  embark  in  their  flotilla,  and  cross 
the  sea  to  England,  where  they  were  to  be  landed,  together 
with  the  troops  which  the  Armada  brought  from  the  ports 
of  Spain.  The  scheme  was  not  dissimilar  to  one  formed 
against  England  a  little  more  than  two  centuries  afterwards. 

As  Napoleon,  in  1805,  waited  with  his  army  and  flotilla  at 
Boulogne,  looking  for  Villeneuve  to  drive  away  the  English 
cruisers,  and  secure  him  a  passage  across  the  Channel,  so 
Parma,  in  1588,  waited  for  Medina  Sidonia  to  drive  away  the 


1588]  DEFEAT   OF   THE   ARMADA  265 

Dutch  and  English  squadrons  that  watched  his  flotilla,  and 
to  enable  his  veterans  to  cross  the  sea  to  the  land  that  they 
were  to  conquer.  Thanks  to  Providence,  in  each  case  Eng- 
land's enemy  waited  in  vain  ! 

Although  the  numbers  of  sail  which  the  queen's  government 
and  the  patriotic  zeal  of  volunteers  had  collected  for  the 
defense  of  England  exceeded  the  number  of  sail  in  the 
Spanish  fleet,  the  English  ships  were,  collectively,  far  infe- 
rior in  size  to  their  adversaries,  their  aggregate  tonnage 
being  less  by  half  than  that  of  the  enemy.  In  the  number 
of  guns  and  weight  of  metal  the  disproportion  was  still 
greater.  The  English  admiral  was  also  obliged  to  subdivide 
his  force ;  and  Lord  Henry  Seymour,  with  forty  of  the  best 
Dutch  and  English  ships,  was  employed  in  blockading  the 
hostile  ports  in  Flanders,  and  in  preventing  the  Prince  of 
Parma  from  coming  out  of  Dunkirk. 

The  orders  of  King  Philip  to  the  Duke  of  Medina  Sidonia 
were  that  he  should,  on  entering  the  Channel,  keep  near  the 
French  coast,  and,  if  attacked  by  the  English  ships,  avoid  an 
action,  and  steer  on  to  Calais  roads,  where  the  Prince  of 
Parma's  squadron  was  to  join  him.  The  hope  of  surprising 
and  destroying  the  English  fleet  in  Plymouth  led  the  Spanish 
admiral  to  deviate  from  these  orders,  and  to  stand  across  to 
the  English  shore  ;  but,  on  finding  that  Lord  Howard  was 
coming  out  to  meet  him,  he  resumed  the  original  plan,  and 
determined  to  bend  his  way  steadily  towards  Calais  and 
Dunkirk,  and  to  keep  merely  on  the  defensive  against  such 
squadrons  of  the  English  as  might  come  up  with  him. 

It  was  on  Saturday,  the  20th  of  July,  that  Lord  Effingham 
came  in  sight  of  his  formidable  adversaries.  The  Armada 
was  drawn  up  in  form  of  a  crescent,  which  from  horn  to 
horn  measured  some  seven  miles.  There  was  a  southwest 
wind ;  and  before  it  the  vast  vessels  sailed  slowly  on.  The 
English  let  them  pass  by ;  and  then,  following  in  the  rear, 
commenced  an  attack  on  them.  A  running  fight  now  took 
place,  in  which  some  of  the  best  ships  of  the  Spaniards  were 
captured ;  many  more  received  heavy  damage ;  while  the 
English  vessels,  which  took  care  not  to  close  with  their  huge 
antagonists,  but  availed  themselves  of  their  superior  celerity 
in  tacking  and  maneuvering,  suffered  little  comparative  loss. 


266  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1588 

Each  day  added  not  only  to  the  spirit,  but  to  the  number  of 
Effingham's  force.  Raleigh,  Oxford,  Cumberland,  and  Shef- 
field joined  him  ;  and  "the  gentlemen  of  England  hired  ships 
from  all  parts  at  their  own  charge,  and  with  one  accord  came 
flocking  thither  as  to  a  set  field,  where  glory  was  to  be  attained 
and  faithful  service  performed  unto  their  prince  and  their 
country." 

Raleigh  justly  praises  the  English  admiral  for  his  skilful 
tactics.  He  says :  "  Certainly,  he  that  will  happily  perform 
a  fight  at  sea  must  be  skilful  in  making  choice  of  vessels  to 
fight  in ;  he  must  believe  that  there  is  more  belonging  to  a 
good  man-of-war  upon  the  waters  than  great  daring;  and 
must  know  that  there  is  a  great  deal  of  difference  between 
fighting  loose  or  at  large  and  grappling.  The  guns  of  a 
slow  ship  pierce  as  well  and  make  as  great  holes  as  those 
in  a  swift.  To  clap  ships  together,  without  consideration, 
belongs  rather  to  a  madman  than  to  a  man-of-war;  for  by 
such  an  ignorant  bravery  was  Peter  Strossie  lost  at  the 
Azores,  when  he  fought  against  the  Marquis  of  Santa  Cruza. 
In  like  sort  had  the  Lord  Charles  Howard,  Admiral  of  Eng- 
land, been  lost  in  the  year  1588,  if  he  had  not  been  better 
advised  than  a  great  many  malignant  fools  were,  that  found 
fault  with  his  demeanor.  The  Spaniards'had  an  army  aboard 
them,  and  he  had  none ;  they  had  more  ships  than  he  had, 
and  of  higher  building  and  charging;  so  that,  had  he 
entangled  himself  with  those  great  and  powerful  vessels,  he 
had  greatly  endangered  this  kingdom  of  England.  For 
twenty  men  upon  the  defences  are  equal  to  a  hundred  that 
board  and  enter ;  whereas  then,  contrariwise,  the  Spaniards 
had  a  hundred  for  twenty  of  ours  to  defend  themselves  withall. 
But  our  admiral  knew  his  advantage,  and  held  it :  which,  had 
he  not  done,  he  had  not  been  worthy  to  have  held  his  head." 

The  Spanish  admiral  also  showed  great  judgment  and  firm- 
ness in  following  the  line  of  conduct  that  had  been  traced  out 
for  him ;  and  on  the  27th  of  July  he  brought  his  fleet 
unbroken,  though  sorely  distressed,  to  anchor  in  Calais  roads. 
But  the  king  of  Spain  had  calculated  ill  the  number  and 
activity  of  the  English  and  Dutch  fleets ;  as  the  old  historian 
Hakluyt  expresses  it,  "  It  seemeth  that  the  Duke  of  Parma 
and  the  Spaniards  grounded  upon  a  vain  and  presumptuous 


1588]  DEFEAT   OF   THE   ARMADA  267 

expectation,  that  all  the  ships  of  England  and  of  the  Low 
Countreys  would  at  the  first  sight  of  the  Spanish  and  Dun- 
kerk  navie  have  betaken  themselves  to  flight,  yeelding  them 
sea-room,  and  endeavoring  only  to  defend  themselves,  their 
havens,  and  sea-coasts  from  invasion.  Wherefore  their  intent 
and  purpose  was,  that  the  Duke  of  Parma,  in  his  small  and 
flat-bottomed  ships  should,  as  it  were,  under  the  shadow  and 
wings  of  the  Spanish  fleet,  convey  over  all  his  troupes, 
armour,  and  warlike  provisions,  and  with  their  forces  so 
united,  should  invade  England ;  or,  while  the  English 
fleet  were  busied  in  fight  against  the  Spanish,  should  enter 
upon  any  part  of  the  coast  which  he  thought  to  be  most  con- 
venient. Which  invasion  (as  the  captives  afterwards  con- 
fessed) the  Duke  of  Parma  thought  first  to  have  attempted 
by  the  river  of  Thames ;  upon  the  banks  whereof,  having  at 
the  first  arrivall  landed  twenty  or  thirty  thousand  of  his  prin- 
cipall  souldiers,  he  supposed  that  he  might  easily  have  wonne 
the  citie  of  London ;  both  because  his  small  shippes  should 
have  followed  and  assisted  his  land-forces,  and  also  for  that 
the  citie  itselfe  was  but  meanely  fortified  and  easie  to  ouer- 
come,  by  reason  of  the  citizens'  delicacie  and  discontinuance 
from  the  warres,  who,  with  continuall  and  constant  labour, 
might  be  vanquished,  if  they  yielded  not  at  the  first  assault." 

But  the  English  and  Dutch  found  ships  and  mariners 
enough  to  keep  the  Armada  itself  in  check  and  at  the  same 
time  to  block  up  Parma's  flotilla.  The  greater  part  of  Sey- 
mour's squadron  left  its  cruising-ground  off  Dunkirk  to  join 
the  English  admiral  off  Calais ;  but  the  Dutch  manned  about 
five-and-thirty  sail  of  good  ships,  with  a  strong  force  of  sol- 
diers on  board,  all  well  seasoned  to  the  sea-service,  and  with 
these  they  blockaded  the  Flemish  ports  that  were  in  Parma's 
power.  Still  it  was  resolved  by  the  Spanish  admiral  and  the 
prince  to  endeavor  to  effect  a  junction,  which  the  English 
seamen  were  equally  resolute  to  prevent;  and  bolder  measures 
on  our  side  now  became  necessary. 

The  Armada  lay  off  Calais,  with  its  largest  ships  ranged 
outside,  "like  strong  castles  fearing  no  assault;  the  lesser 
placed  in  the  middle  ward."  The  English  admiral  could  not 
attack  them  in  their  position  without  great  disadvantage ;  but 
on  the  night  of  the  29th  he  sent  eight  fire-ships  among  them, 


268  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1588 

with  almost  equal  effect  to  that  of  the  fire-ships  which  the 
Greeks  so  often  employed  against  the  Turkish  fleets  in  their 
late  war  of  independence.  The  Spaniards  cut  their  cables 
and  put  to  sea  in  confusion.  One  of  the  largest  galleasses 
ran  foul  of  another  vessel  and  was  stranded.  The  rest  of 
the  fleet  was  scattered  about  on  the  Flemish  coast,  and  when 
the  morning  broke  it  was  with  difficulty  and  delay  that  they 
obeyed  their  admiral's  signal  to  range  themselves  round  him 
near  Gravelines.  Now  was  the  golden  opportunity  for  the 
English  to  assail  them,  and  prevent  them  from  ever  letting 
loose  Parma's  flotilla  against  England ;  and  nobly  was  that 
opportunity  used.  Drake  and  Fenner  were  the  first  English 
captains  who  attacked  the  unwieldy  leviathans;  then  came 
Fenton,  Southwell,  Burton,  Cross,  Raynor,  and  then  the  lord 
admiral,  with  Lord  Thomas  Howard  and  Lord  Sheffield.  The 
Spaniards  only  thought  of  forming  and  keeping  close  together, 
and  were  driven  by  the  English  past  Dunkirk,  and  far  away 
from  the  Prince  of  Parma,  who,  in  watching  their  defeat  from 
the  coast,  must,  as  Drake  expressed  it,  have  chafed  like  a 
bear  robbed  of  her  whelps.  This  was  indeed  the  last  and 
the  decisive  battle  between  the  two  fleets.  It  is,  perhaps, 
best  described  in  the  very  words  of  the  contemporary  writer 
as  we  may  read  them  in  Hakluyt :  — 

"Upon  the  29th  of  July,  in  the  morning,  the  Spanish  fleet, 
after  the  forsayd  tumult,  having  arranged  themselues  againe 
into  order,  were,  within  sight  of  Greveling,  most  bravely  and 
furiously  encountered  by  the  English  ;  where  they  once  again 
got  the  wind  of  the  Spaniards ;  who  suffered  themselues  to 
be  deprived  of  the  commodity  of  the  place  in  Caleis  road, 
and  of  the  advantage  of  the  wind  neer  unto  Dunkerk,  rather 
than  they  would  change  their  array  or  separate  their  forces 
now  conjoyned  and  united  together,  standing  only  upon  their 
defence. 

"  And  howbeit  there  were  many  excellent  and  warlike  ships 
in  the  English  fleet,  yet  scarce  were  there  22  or  23  among 
them  all,  which  matched  90  of  the  Spanish  ships  in  the  big- 
ness, or  could  conveniently  assault  them.  Wherefore  the 
English  ships  using  their  prerogative  of  nimble  steerage, 
whereby  they  could  turn  and  wield  themselues  with  the  wind 
which  way  they  listed,  came  often  times  very  near  upon  the 


i588]  DEFEAT   OF   THE   ARMADA  269 

Spaniards,  and  charged  them  so  sore,  that  now  and  then  they 
were  but  a  pike's  length  asunder :  and  so  continually  giving 
them  one  broadside  after  another,  they  discharged  all  their 
shot  both  great  and  small  upon  them,  spending  one  whole 
day  from  morning  till  night  in  that  violent  kind  of  conflict, 
untill  such  time  as  powder  and  bullets  failed  them.  In  regard 
of  which  want  they  thought  it  convenient  not  to  pursue  the 
Spaniards  any  longer,  because  they  had  many  great  vantages 
of  the  English,  namely,  for  the  extraordinary  bigness  of  their 
ships,  and  also  for  that  they  were  so  neerley  conjoyned,  and 
kept  together  in  so  good  array,  that  they  could  by  no  means 
be  fought  withall  one  to  one.  The  English  thought,  there- 
fore, that  they  had  right  well  acquitted  themselues,  in  chasing 
the  Spaniards  first  from  Caleis,  and  then  from  Dunkerk,  and 
by  that  meanes  to  have  hindered  them  from  joyning  with  the 
Duke  of  Parma  his  forces,  and  getting  the  wind  of  them,  to 
have  driven  them  from  their  own  coasts. 

"  The  Spaniards  that  day  sustained  great  loss  and  damage, 
having  many  of  their  shippes  shot  thorow  and  thorow,  and 
they  discharged  likewise  great  store  of  ordinance  against  the 
English ;  who,  indeed,  sustained  some  hindrance,  but  not 
comparable  to  the  Spaniard's  loss :  for  they  lost  not  any  one 
ship  or  person  of  account,  for  very  diligent  inquisition  being 
made,  the  English  men  all  that  time  wherein  the  Spanish 
navy  sayled  upon  their  seas,  are  not  found  to  haue  wanted 
aboue  one  hundred  of  their  people  :  albeit  Sir  Francis  Drake's 
ship  was  pierced  with  shot  aboue  forty  times,  and  his  very 
cabben  was  twice  shot  thorow,  and  about  the  conclusion  of 
the  fight,  the  bed  of  a  certaine  gentleman  lying  weary  there- 
upon, was  taken  quite  from  under  him  with  the  force  of  a 
bullet.  Likewise,  as  the  Earle  of  Northumberland  and  Sir 
Charles  Blunt  were  at  dinner  upon  a  time,  the  bullet  of  a 
demy-culverin  brake  thorow  the  middest  of  their  cabben, 
touched  their  feet,  and  strooke  downe  two  of  the  standers 
by,  with  many  such  accidents  befalling  the  English  shippes, 
which  it  were  tedious  to  rehearse." 

It  reflects  little  credit  on  the  English  government  that  the 
English  fleet  was  so  deficiently  supplied  with  ammunition  as 
to  be  unable  to  complete  the  destruction  of  the  invaders.  But 
enough  was  done  to  insure  it.     Many  of  the  largest  Spanish 


270  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1588 

ships  were  sunk  or  captured  in  the  action  of  this  day.  And 
at  length  the  Spanish  admiral,  despairing  of  success,  fled 
northward  with  a  southerly  wind,  in  the  hope  of  rounding 
Scotland,  and  so  returning  to  Spain  without  a  further  en- 
counter with  the  English  fleet.  Lord  Effingham  left  a  squadron 
to  continue  the  blockade  of  the  Prince  of  Parma's  armament ; 
but  that  wise  general  soon  withdrew  his  troops  to  more  promis- 
ing fields  of  action.  Meanwhile  the  lord  admiral  himself  and 
Drake  chased  the  vincible  Armada,  as  it  was  now  termed,  for 
some  distance  northward ;  and  then,  when  it  seemed  to  bend 
away  from  the  Scotch  coast  towards  Norway,  it  was  thought 
best,  in  the  words  of  Drake,  "to  leave  them  to  those  bois- 
terous and  uncouth  northern  seas." 

The  sufferings  and  losses  which  the  unhappy  Spaniards 
sustained  in  their  flight  round  Scotland  and  Ireland  are  well 
known.  Of  their  whole  Armada  only  fifty-three  shattered 
vessels  brought  back  their  beaten  and  wasted  crews  to  the 
Spanish  coast  which  they  had  quitted  in  such  pageantry  and 
pride. 

Some  passages  from  the  writings  of  those  who  took  part 
in  the  struggle  have  been  already  quoted ;  and  the  most 
spirited  description  of  the  defeat  of  the  Armada  which  ever 
was  penned  may  perhaps  be  taken  from  the  letter  which  our 
brave  vice-admiral  Drake  wrote  in  answer  to  some  menda- 
cious stories  by  which  the  Spaniards  strove  to  hide  their  shame. 
Thus  does  he  describe  the  scenes  in  which  he  played  so  im- 
portant a  part :  — 

"  They  were  not  ashamed  to  publish,  in  sundry  languages 
in  print,  great  victories  in  words,  which  they  pretended  to 
have  obtained  against  this  realm,  and  spread  the  same  in  a 
most  false  sort  over  all  parts  of  France,  Italy,  and  elsewhere ; 
when,  shortly  afterwards,  it  was  happily  manifested  in  very 
deed  to  all  nations,  how  their  navy,  which  they  termed  invin- 
cible, consisting  of  one  hundred  and  forty  sail  of  ships,  not 
only  of  their  own  kingdom,  but  strengthened  with  the  great- 
est argosies,  Portugal  carraks,  Florentines,  and  large  hulks 
of  other  countries,  were  by  thirty  of  her  majesty's  own  ships 
of  war,  and  a  few  of  our  own  merchants,  by  the  wise,  valiant, 
and  advantageous  conduct  of  the  Lord  Charles  Howard,  high 
admiral  of  England,  beaten  and  shuffled  together  even  from 


1588]  DEFEAT   OF   THE   ARMADA  271 

the  Lizard  in  Cornwall,  first  to  Portland,  when  they  shamefully 
left  Don  Pedro  de  Valdez  with  his  mighty  ship ;  from  Port- 
land to  Calais,  where  they  lost  Hugh  de  Mongado,  with  the 
galleys  of  which  he  was  captain  ;  and  from  Calais  driven  with 
squibs  from  their  anchors,  were  chased  out  of  the  sight  of 
England,  round  about  Scotland  and  Ireland.  Where,  for  the 
sympathy  of  their  religion,  hoping  to  find  succour  and  assist- 
ance, a  great  part  of  them  were  crushed  against  the  rocks, 
and  those  others  that  landed,  being  very  many  in  number, 
were,  notwithstanding,  broken,  slain,  and  taken ;  and  so  sent 
from  village  to  village,  coupled  in  halters,  to  be  shipped  into 
England,  where  her  majesty,  of  her  princely  and  invincible 
disposition,  disdaining  to  put  them  to  death,  and  scorning 
either  to  retain  or  to  entertain  them,  they  were  all  sent  back 
again  to  their  countries,  to  witness  and  recount  the  worthy 
achievement  of  their  invincible  and  dreadful  navy.  Of  which 
the  number  of  soldiers,  the  fearful  burthen  of  their  ships,  the 
commanders'  names  of  every  squadron,  with  all  others,  their 
magazines  of  provisions,  were  put  in  print,  as  an  army  and 
navy  irresistible  and  disdaining  prevention :  with  all  which 
their  great  and  terrible  ostentation,  they  did  not  in  all  their 
sailing  round  about  England  so  much  as  sink  or  take  one 
ship,  bark,  pinnace,  or  cockboat  of  ours,  or  even  burn  so 
much  as  one  sheep-cote  on  this  land." 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Defeat  of  the  Span- 
ish Armada,  1588,  and  the  Battle  of  Blenheim,  1704 

1594.  Henry  IV.  of  France  conforms  to  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic Church,  and  ends  the  civil  wars  that  had  long  desolated 
France. 

1598.  Philip  II.  of  Spain  dies,  leaving  a  ruined  navy  and 
an  exhausted  kingdom. 

1603.  Death  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  The  Scotch  dynasty  of 
the  Stuarts  succeeds  to  the  throne  of  England. 

16 19.  Commencement  of  the  Thirty  Years'  war  in  Ger- 
many. 

1624  to  1642.  Cardinal  Richelieu  is  minister  of  France. 
He  breaks  the  power  of  the  nobility,  reduces  the  Huguenots 
to  complete  subjection,  and,  by  aiding  the  Protestant  German 


272  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1588 

1 

princes  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Thirty  Years'  war,  he  humil- 
iates France's  ancient  rival,  Austria. 

1630.  Gustavus  Adolphus,  king  of  Sweden,  marches  into 
Germany  to  the  assistance  of  the  Protestants,  who  were  nearly 
crushed  by  the  Austrian  armies.  He  gains  several  great  vic- 
tories, and,  after  his  death,  Sweden,  under  his  statesmen  and 
generals,  continues  to  take  a  leading  part  in  the  war. 

1640.  Portugal  throws  off  the  Spanish  yoke,  and  the 
house  of  Braganza  begins  to  reign. 

1642.  Commencement  of  the  civil  war  in  England  between 
Charles  I.  and  his  parliament. 

1648.  The  Thirty  Years'  war  in  Germany  ended  by  the 
Treaty  of  Westphalia. 

1653.    Oliver  Cromwell  lord  protector  of  England. 

1660.  Restoration  of  the  Stuarts  to  the  English  throne. 

166 1.  Louis  XIV.  takes  the  administration  of  affairs  in 
France  into  his  own  hands. 

1667  to  1668.  Louis  XIV.  makes  war  in  Spain,  and  con- 
quers a  large  part  of  the  Spanish  Netherlands. 

1672.  Louis  makes  war  upon  Holland,  and  almost  over- 
powers it.  Charles  II.  of  England  is  his  pensioner,  and 
England  helps  the  French  in  their  attacks  upon  Holland  until 
1674.  Heroic  resistance  of  the  Dutch  under  the  Prince  of 
Orange. 

1674.    Louis  conquers  Franche-Comte. 

1679.    Peace  of  Nimeguen. 

1 68 1.  Louis  invades  and  occupies  Alsace. 

1682.  Accession  of  Peter  the  Great  to  the  throne  of 
Russia. 

1685.  Louis  commences  a  merciless  persecution  of  his 
Protestant  subjects. 

1688.  The  Glorious  Revolution  in  England.  Expulsion  of 
James  II.  William  of  Orange  is  made  king  of  England. 
James  takes  refuge  at  the  French  court,  and  Louis  under- 
takes to  restore  him.     General  war  in  the  west  of  Europe. 

1697.  Treaty  of  Ryswick.  Charles  XII.  becomes  king  of 
Sweden. 

1700.  Charles  II.  of  Spain  dies,  having  bequeathed  his  do- 
minions to  Philip  of  Anjou,  Louis  XIV.'s  grandson.  Defeat 
of  the  Russians  at  Narva,  by  Charles  XII. 


1588]  DEFEAT    OF   THE    ARMADA  273 

1701.  William  III.  forms  a  "Grand  Alliance"  of  Austria, 
the  Empire,  the  United  Provinces,  England,  and  other  powers, 
against  France. 

1702.  King  William  dies;  but  his  successor,  Queen  Anne, 
adheres  to  the  Grand  Alliance,  and  war  is  proclaimed  against 
France. 


274  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1704 


CHAPTER   XI 

77ie  Battle  of  Blenheim,   1704 

u  The  decisive  blow  struck  at  Blenheim  resounded  through  ever}'  part 
of  Europe :  it  at  once  destroyed  the  vast  fabric  of  power  which  it  had 
taken  Louis  XIV.,  aided  by  the  talents  of  Turenne  and  the  genius  of  Vau- 
ban,  so  long  to  construct."  —  Alison. 

THOUGH  more  slowly  molded  and  less  imposingly  vast 
than  the  empire  of  Napoleon,  the  power  which  Louis 
XIV.  had  acquired  and  was  acquiring  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  eighteenth  century  was  almost  equally  menacing 
to  the  general  liberties  of  Europe.  If  tested  by  the  amount 
of  permanent  aggrandizement  which  each  procured  for  France, 
the  ambition  of  the  royal  Bourbon  was  more  successful  than 
were  the  enterprises  of  the  imperial  Corsican.  All  the  prov- 
inces that  Bonaparte  conquered  were  rent  again  from  France 
within  twenty  years  from  the  date  when  the  very  earliest  of 
them  was  acquired.  France  is  not  stronger  by  a  single  city 
or  a  single  acre  for  all  the  devastating  wars  of  the  Consulate 
and  the  Empire.  But  she  still  possesses  Franche-Comt6, 
Alsace,  and  a  part  of  Flanders.  She  has  still  the  extended 
boundaries  which  Louis  XIV.  gave  her.  And  the  royal  Span- 
ish marriages,  a  few  years  ago,  proved  clearly  how  enduring 
has  been  the  political  influence  which  the  arts  and  arms  of 
France's  "  Grand  Monarque  "  obtained  for  her  southward  of 
the  Pyrenees. 

When  Louis  XIV.  took  the  reins  of  government  into  his  own 
hands,  after  the  death  of  Cardinal  Mazarin,  there  was  a  union 
of  ability  with  opportunity  such  as  France  had  not  seen  since 
the  days  of  Charlemagne.  Moreover,  Louis's  career  was  no 
brief  one.  For  upwards  of  forty  years,  for  a  period  nearly 
equal  to  the  duration  of  Charlemagne's  reign,  Louis  steadily 
followed  an  aggressive  and  generally  successful  policy.  He 
passed   a   long  youth  and  manhood  of  triumph  before  the 


1 704]  BATTLE   OF   BLENHEIM  275 

military  genius  of  Marlborough  made  him  acquainted  with 
humiliation  and  defeat.  The  great  Bourbon  lived  too  long. 
He  should  not  have  outstayed  our  two  English  kings  —  one  his 
dependent,  James  II.,  the  other  his  antagonist,  William  III. 
Had  he  died  in  the  year  within  which  they  died,  his  reign 
would  be  cited  as  unequaled  in  the  French  annals  for  its  pros- 
perity. But  he  lived  on  to  see  his  armies  beaten,  his  cities 
captured,  and  his  kingdom  wasted  by  disastrous  war.  It  is 
as  if  Charlemagne  had  survived  to  be  defeated  by  the  North- 
men and  to  witness  the  misery  and  shame  that  actually  fell 
to  the  lot  of  his  descendants. 

Still,  Louis  XIV.  had  forty  years  of  success  ;  and  from  the 
permanence  of  their  fruits  we  may  judge  what  the  results 
would  have  been  if  the  last  fifteen  years  of  his  reign  had  been 
equally  fortunate.  Had  it  not  been  for  Blenheim,  all  Europe 
might  at  this  day  suffer  under  the  effect  of  French  conquests 
resembling  those  of  Alexander  in  extent,  and  those  of  the 
Romans  in  durability. 

When  Louis  XIV.  began  to  govern,  he  found  all  the  mate- 
rials for  a  strong  government  ready  to  his  hand.  Richelieu 
had  completely  tamed  the  turbulent  spirit  of  the  French 
nobility,  and  had  subverted  the  "  imperium  in  imperio  "  of  the 
Huguenots.  The  faction  of  the  Frondeurs  in  Mazarin's  time 
had  had  the  effect  of  making  the  Parisian  parliament  utterly 
hateful  and  contemptible  in  the  eyes  of  the  nation.  The 
Assemblies  of  the  States-General  were  obsolete.  The  royal 
authority  alone  remained.  The  king  was  the  state.  Louis 
knew  his  position.  He  fearlessly  avowed  it,  and  he  fearlessly 
acted  up  to  it. 

Not  only  was  his  government  a  strong  one,  but  the  country 
which  he  governed  was  strong:  strong  in  its  geographical 
situation,  in  the  compactness  of  its  territory,  in  the  number 
and  martial  spirit  of  its  inhabitants,  and  in  their  complete 
and  undivided  nationality.  Louis  had  neither  a  Hungary  nor 
an  Ireland  in  his  dominions.  And  it  was  not  till  late  in  his 
reign,  when  old  age  had  made  his  bigotry  more  gloomy,  and 
had  given  fanaticism  the  mastery  over  prudence,  that  his  per- 
secuting intolerance  caused  the  civil  war  in  the  Cevennes. 

Like  Napoleon  in  after-times,  Louis  XIV.  saw  clearly  that 
the  great  wants  of  France  were  "  ships,  colonies,  and  com- 


276  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1704 

merce."  But  Louis  did  more  than  see  these  wants :  by  the 
aid  of  his  great  minister,  Colbert,  he  supplied  them.  One  of 
the  surest  proofs  of  the  genius  of  Louis  was  his  skill  in  find- 
ing out  genius  in  others,  and  his  promptness  in  calling  it  into 
action.  Under  him,  Louvois  organized,  Turenne,  Conde,  Vil- 
lars,  and  Berwick  led  the  armies  of  France ;  and  Vauban 
fortified  her  frontiers.  Throughout  his  reign,  French  diplo- 
macy was  marked  by  skilfulness  and  activity,  and  also  by 
comprehensive  far-sightedness,  such  as  the  representatives  of 
no  other  nation  possessed.  Guizot's  testimony  to  the  vigor 
that  was  displayed  through  every  branch  of  Louis  XIV. 's 
government,  and  to  the  extent  to  which  France  at  present  is 
indebted  to  him,  is  remarkable.  He  says  that,  "taking  the 
public  services  of  every  kind,  the  finances,  the  departments 
of  roads  and  public  works,  the  military  administration,  and  all 
the  establishments  which  belong  to  every  branch  of  adminis- 
tration, there  is  not  one  that  will  not  be  found  to  have  had  its 
origin,  its  development,  or  its  greatest  perfection,  under  the 
reign  of  Louis  XIV."  And  he  points  out  to  us  that  "  the  gov- 
ernment of  Louis  XIV.  was  the  first  that  presented  itself  to 
the  eyes  of  Europe  as  a  power  acting  upon  sure  grounds, 
which  had  not  to  dispute  its  existence  with  inward  enemies, 
but  was  at  ease  as  to  its  territory  and  its  people,  and  solely 
occupied  with  the  task  of  administering  government,  properly 
so  called.  All  the  European  governments  had  been  pre- 
viously thrown  into  incessant  wars,  which  deprived  them  of 
all  security  as  well  as  of  all  leisure,  or  so  harassed  by  internal 
parties  or  antagonists  that  their  time  was  passed  in  fighting 
for  existence.  The  government  of  Louis  XIV.  was  the  first 
to  appear  as  a  busy,  thriving  administration  of  affairs,  as  a 
power  at  once  definitive  and  progressive,  which  was  not  afraid 
to  innovate,  because  it  could  reckon  securely  on  the  future. 
There  have  been  in  fact  very  few  governments  equally  innovat- 
ing. Compare  it  with  a  government  of  the  same  nature,  the 
unmixed  monarchy  of  Philip  II.  in  Spain  ;  it  was  more  absolute 
than  that  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  yet  it  was  far  less  regular  and 
tranquil.  How  did  Philip  II.  succeed  in  establishing  absolute 
power  in  Spain  ?  By  stifling  all  activity  in  the  country,  op- 
posing himself  to  every  species  of  amelioration,  and  render- 
ing the  state  of  Spain  completely  stagnant.     The  government 


1704]  BATTLE   OF   BLENHEIM  277 

of  Louis  XIV.,  on  the  contrary,  exhibited  alacrity  for  all  sorts 
of  innovations,  and  showed  itself  favorable  to  the  progress  of 
letters,  arts,  wealth,  —  in  short,  of  civilization.  This  was  the 
veritable  cause  of  its  preponderance  in  Europe,  which  arose 
to  such  a  pitch  that  it  became  the  type  of  a  government  not 
only  to  sovereigns,  but  also  to  nations,  during  the  seventeenth 
century." 

While  France  was  thus  strong  and  united  in  herself,  and 
ruled  by  a  martial,  an  ambitious,  and  (with  all  his  faults)  an 
enlightened  and  high-spirited  sovereign,  what  European  power 
was  there  fit  to  cope  with  her,  or  keep  her  in  check  ? 

"As  to  Germany,  the  ambitious  projects  of  the  German 
branch  of  Austria  had  been  entirely  defeated,  the  peace  of 
the  empire  had  been  restored,  and  almost  a  new  constitution 
formed,  or  an  old  one  revived,  by  the  treaties  of  Westphalia ; 
nay,  the  imperial  eagle  was  not  only  fallen,  but  her  wings  were 
clipped:' 

As  to  Spain,  the  Spanish  branch  of  the  Austrian  house 
had  sunk  equally  low.  Philip  II.  left  his  successors  a  ruined 
monarchy.  He  left  them  something  worse  :  he  left  them  his 
example  and  his  principles  of  government,  founded  in  ambi- 
tion, in  pride,  in  ignorance,  in  bigotry,  and  all  the  pedantry 
of  state. 

It  is  not,  therefore,  to  be  wondered  at  that  France,  in  the 
first  war  of  Louis  XIV.,  despised  the  opposition  of  both 
branches  of  the  once  predominant  house  of  Austria.  Indeed, 
in  Germany  the  French  king  acquired  allies  among  the 
princes  of  the  empire  against  the  emperor  himself.  He  had 
a  still  stronger  support  in  Austria's  misgovernment  of  her 
own  subjects.  The  words  of  Bolingbroke  on  this  are  remark- 
able, and  some  of  them  sound  as  if  written  within  the  last 
three  years.  Bolingbroke  says  :  "  It  was  not  merely  the  want 
of  cordial  cooperation  among  the  princes  of  the  empire  that 
disabled  the  emperor  from  acting  with  vigor  in  the  cause  of 
his  family  then,  nor  that  has  rendered  the  house  of  Austria 
a  dead  weight  upon  all  her  allies  ever  since.  Bigotry,  and 
its  inseparable  companion,  cruelty,  as  well  as  the  tyranny  and 
avarice  of  the  court  of  Vienna,  created  in  those  days,  and  has 
maintained  in  ours,  almost  a  perpetual  diversion  of  the  impe- 
rial arms  from  all  effectual  opposition  to  France.     /  mean  to 


278  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1704 

speak  of  the  troubles  in  Hungary.  Whatever  they  became  in 
their  progress,  they  were  caused  originally  by  the  usurpations 
and  persecutions  of  the  emperor;  and  when  the  Hungarians 
were  called  rebels  first,  they  were  called  so  for  no  other  reason 
than  this,  that  they  would  not  be  slaves.  The  dominion  of 
the  emperor  being  less  supportable  than  that  of  the  Turks, 
this  unhappy  people  opened  a  door  to  the  latter  to  infest  the 
empire,  instead  of  making  their  country,  what  it  had  been 
before,  a  barrier  against  the  Ottoman  power.  France  became 
a  sure  though  secret  ally  of  the  Turks,  as  well  as  the  Hunga- 
rians, and  has  found  her  account  in  it,  by  keeping  the  emperor 
in  perpetual  alarms  on  that  side,  while  she  has  ravaged  the 
empire  and  the  Low  Countries  on  the  other." 

If,  after  having  seen  the  imbecility  of  Germany  and  Spain 
against  the  France  of  Louis  XIV.,  we  turn  to  the  two  only 
remaining  European  powers  of  any  importance  at  that  time, 
to  England  and  to  Holland,  we  find  the  position  of  our  own 
country  as  to  European  politics,  from  1660  to  1688,  most  painful 
to  contemplate.  From  1660  to  1688,  "England,  by  the  return 
of  the  Stuarts,  was  reduced  to  a  nullity."  The  words  are 
Michelet's,  and  though  severe,  they  are  just.  They  are,  in 
fact,  not  severe  enough ;  for  when  England,  under  her  re- 
stored dynasty  of  the  Stuarts,  did  take  any  part  in  European 
politics,  her  conduct,  or  rather  her  king's  conduct,  was 
almost  invariably  wicked  and  dishonorable. 

Bolingbroke  rightly  says  that,  previous  to  the  revolution  of 
1688,  during  the  whole  progress  that  Louis  XIV.  made  in 
obtaining  such  exorbitant  power  as  gave  him  well-grounded 
hopes  of  acquiring  at  last  to  his  family  the  Spanish  monarchy, 
England  had  been  either  an  idle  spectator  of  what  passed  on 
the  Continent,  or  a  faint  and  uncertain  ally  against  France,  or 
a  warm  and  sure  ally  on  her  side,  or  a  partial  mediator  between 
her  and  the  powers  confederated  together  in  their  common 
defense.  But  though  the  court  of  England  submitted  to  abet 
the  usurpations  of  France,  and  the  king  of  England  stooped 
to  be  her  pensioner,  the  crime  was  not  national.  On  the 
contrary,  the  nation  cried  out  loudly  against  it  even  whilst 
it  was  being  committed. 

Holland  alone,  of  all  the  European  powers,  opposed  from 
the  very  beginning  a  steady  and  uniform  resistance  to  the 


1704]  BATTLE   OF   BLENHEIM  279 

ambition  and  power  of  the  French  king.  It  was  against 
Holland  that  the  fiercest  attacks  of  France  were  made,  and 
though  often  apparently  on  the  eve  of  complete  success,  they 
were  always  ultimately  baffled  by  the  stubborn  bravery  of 
the  Dutch,  and  the  heroism  of  their  leader,  William  of 
Orange.  When  he  became  king  of  England,  the  power 
of  this  country  was  thrown  decidedly  into  the  scale  against 
France ;  but  though  the  contest  was  thus  rendered  less  un- 
equal, though  William  acted  throughout  "  with  invincible 
firmness,  like  a  patriot  and  a  hero,"  France  had  the  general 
superiority  in  every  war  and  in  every  treaty ;  and  the  com- 
mencement of  the  eighteenth  century  found  the  last  league 
against  her  dissolved,  all  the  forces  of  the  confederates 
against  her  dispersed,  and  many  disbanded;  while  France 
continued  armed,  with  her  veteran  forces  by  sea  and  land 
increased  and  held  in  readiness  to  act  on  all  sides,  when- 
ever the  opportunity  should  arise  for  seizing  on  the  great 
prizes  which,  from  the  very  beginning  of  his  reign,  had  never 
been  lost  sight  of  by  her  king. 

This  is  not  the  place  for  any  narrative  of  the  first  essay 
which  Louis  XIV.  made  of  his  power  in  the  war  of  1667 ; 
of  his  rapid  conquest  of  Flanders  and  Franche-Comte ;  of  the 
Treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle,  which,  says  Bolingbroke,  "was  noth- 
ing more  than  a  composition  between  the  bully  and  the 
bullied";  of  his  attack  on  Holland  in  1672;  of  the  districts 
and  barrier  towns  of  the  Spanish  Netherlands  which  were 
secured  to  him  by  the  Treaty  of  Nimeguen  in  1678  ;  of  how, 
after  this  treaty,  he  "  continued  to  vex  both  Spain  and  the 
empire,  and  to  extend  his  conquests  in  the  Low  Countries 
and  on  the  Rhine,  both  by  the  pen  and  the  sword ;  how  he 
took  Luxemburg  by  force,  stole  Strasburg,  and  bought 
Casal";  of  how  the  league  of  Augsburg  was  formed  against 
him  in  1686,  and  the  election  of  William  of  Orange  to  the 
English  throne  in  1688  gave  a  new  spirit  to  the  opposition 
which  France  encountered ;  of  the  long  and  checkered  war 
that  followed,  in  which  the  French  armies  were  generally 
victorious  on  the  Continent,  though  his  fleet  was  beaten  at  La 
Hogue,  and  his  dependent,  James  II.,  was  defeated  at  the 
Boyne,  or  of  the  treaty  of  Ryswick,  which  left  France  in  pos- 
session  of    Roussillon,  Artois,    and    Strasburg,   which  gave 


280  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1704 

Europe  no  security  against  her  claims  on  the  Spanish  succes- 
sion, and  which  Louis  regarded  as  a  mere  truce,  to  gain  breath- 
ing time  before  a  more  decisive  struggle.  It  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that  the  ambition  of  Louis  in  these  wars  was  two- 
fold. It  had  its  immediate  and  its  ulterior  objects.  Its  im- 
mediate object  was  to  conquer  and  annex  to  France  the 
neighboring  provinces  and  towns  that  were  most  convenient 
for  the  increase  of  her  strength ;  but  the  ulterior  object  of 
Louis,  from  the  time  of  his  marriage  to  the  Spanish  Infanta 
in  1659,  was  to  acquire  for  the  house  of  Bourbon  the  whole 
empire  of  Spain.  A  formal  renunciation  of  all  right  to  the 
Spanish  succession  had  been  made  at  the  time  of  the  mar- 
riage ;  but  such  renunciations  were  never  of  any  practical 
effect,  and  many  casuists  and  jurists  of  the  age  even  held 
them  to  be  intrinsically  void.  As  time  passed  on,  and  the 
prospect  of  Charles  II.  of  Spain  dying  without  lineal  heirs 
became  more  and  more  certain,  so  did  the  claims  of  the  house 
of  Bourbon  to  the  Spanish  crown  after  his  death  become 
matters  of  urgent  interest  to  French  ambition  on  the  one 
hand,  and  to  the  other  powers  of  Europe  on  the  other.  At 
length  the  unhappy  king  of  Spain  died.  By  his  will  he 
appointed  Philip,  Duke  of  Anjou,  one  of  Louis  XIV.'s  grand- 
sons, to  succeed  him  on  the  throne  of  Spain,  and  strictly  for- 
bade any  partition  of  his  dominions.  Louis  well  knew  that 
a  general  European  war  would  follow  if  he  accepted  for  his 
house  the  crown  thus  bequeathed.  But  he  had  been  pre- 
paring for  this  crisis  throughout  his  reign.  He  sent  his 
grandson  into  Spain  as  King  Philip  V.  of  that  country,  ad- 
dressing to  him  on  his  departure  the  memorable  words, 
"  There  are  no  longer  any  Pyrenees." 

The  empire,  which  now  received  the  grandson  of  Louis  as 
its  king,  comprised,  besides  Spain  itself,  the  strongest  part  of 
the  Netherlands,  Sardinia,  Sicily,  Naples,  the  principality  of 
Milan,  and  other  possessions  in  Italy,  the  Philippine  and 
Manilla  islands  in  Asia,  and  in  the  New  World,  besides  Cali- 
fornia and  Florida,  the  greatest  part  of  Central  and  of  South- 
ern America.  Philip  was  well  received  in  Madrid,  where  he 
was  crowned  as  King  Philip  V.  in  the  beginning  of  1701.  The 
distant  portions  of  his  empire  sent  in  their  adhesion ;  and  the 
house  of  Bourbon,  either  by  its  French  or  Spanish  troops,  now 


X704]  BATTLE   OF   BLENHEIM  281 

had  occupation  both  of  the  kingdom  of  Francis  I.  and  of  the 
fairest  and  amplest  portion  of  the  empire  of  the  great  rival  of 
Francis,  Charles  V. 

Loud  was  the  wrath  of  Austria,  whose  princes  were  the 
rival  claimants  of  the  Bourbons  for  the  empire  of  Spain.  The 
indignation  of  William  III.,  though  not  equally  loud,  was  far 
more  deep  and  energetic.  By  his  exertions  a  league  against 
the  house  of  Bourbon  was  formed  between  England,  Holland, 
and  the  Austrian  emperor,  which  was  subsequently  joined  by 
the  kings  of  Portugal  and  Prussia,  by  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  and 
by  Denmark.  Indeed,  the  alarm  throughout  Europe  was 
general  and  urgent.  It  was  clear  that  Louis  aimed  at  consoli- 
dating France  and  the  Spanish  dominions  into  one  prepon- 
derating empire.  At  the  moment  when  Philip  was  departing 
to  take  possession  of  Spain,  Louis  had  issued  letters  patent 
in  his  favor  to  the  effect  of  preserving  his  rights  to  the  throne 
of  France.  And  Louis  had  himself  obtained  possession  of 
the  important  frontier  of  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  with  its 
numerous  fortified  cities,  which  were  given  up  to  his  troops 
under  pretense  of  securing  them  for  the  young  king  of  Spain. 
Whether  the  formal  union  of  the  two  crowns  was  likely  to 
take  place  speedily  or  not,  it  was  evident  that  the  resources 
of  the  whole  Spanish  monarchy  were  now  virtually  at  the 
French  king's  disposal. 

The  peril  that  seemed  to  menace  the  empire,  Eng- 
land, Holland,  and  the  other  independent  powers,  is  well 
summed  up  by  Alison :  "  Spain  had  threatened  the  liberties 
of  Europe  in  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  France 
had  all  but  overthrown  them  in  the  close  of  the  seven- 
teenth. What  hope  was  there  of  their  being  able  to  make 
head  against  them  both,  united  under  such  a  monarch  as 
Louis  XIV.  ? " 

Our  knowledge  of  the  decayed  state  into  which  the  Spanish 
power  had  fallen  ought  not  to  make  us  regard  their  alarms 
as  chimerical.  Spain  possessed  enormous  resources,  and  her 
strength  was  capable  of  being  regenerated  by  a  vigorous  ruler. 
We  should  remember  what  Alberoni  effected,  even  after  the 
close  of  the  War  of  Succession.  By  what  that  minister  did 
in  a  few  years,  we  may  judge  what  Louis  XIV.  would  have 
done  in  restoring  the  maritime  and  military  power  of  that 


282  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1704 

great  country  which  nature  has  so  largely  gifted,  and  which 
man's  misgovernment  has  so  debased. 

The  death  of  King  William  on  the  8th  of  March,  1702,  at 
first  seemed  likely  to  paralyze  the  league  against  France,  for 
"  notwithstanding  the  ill  success  with  which  he  made  war 
generally,  he  was  looked  upon  as  the  sole  center  of  union 
that  could  keep  together  the  great  confederacy  then  forming ; 
and  how  much  the  French  feared  from  his  life  had  appeared 
a  few  years  before,  in  the  extravagant  and  indecent  joy  they 
expressed  on  a  false  report  of  his  death.  A  short  time  showed 
how  vain  the  fears  of  some  and  the  hopes  of  others  were." 
[Bolingbroke.]  Queen  Anne,  within  three  days  after  her 
accession,  went  down  to  the  House  of  Lords,  and  there 
declared  her  resolution  to  support  the  measures  planned  by 
her  predecessor,  who  had  been  "  the  great  support,  not  only 
of  these  kingdoms,  but  of  all  Europe."  Anne  was  married 
to  Prince  George  of  Denmark,  and  by  her  accession  to  the 
English  throne  the  confederacy  against  Louis  obtained  the 
aid  of  the  troops  of  Denmark ;  but  Anne's  strong  attachment 
to  one  of  her  female  friends  led  to  far  more  important  advan- 
tages to  the  anti-Gallican  confederacy  than  the  acquisition  of 
many  armies,  for  it  gave  them  Marlborough  as  their  captain- 
general. 

There  are  few  successful  commanders  on  whom  Fame  has 
shone  so  unwillingly  as  upon  John  Churchill,  Duke  of  Marl- 
borough, Prince  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire — victor  of  Blen- 
heim, Ramilies,  Oudenarde,  and  Malplaquet — captor  of  Liege, 
Bonn,  Limburg,  Landau,  Ghent,  Bruges,  Antwerp,  Oudenarde, 
Ostend,  Menin,  Dendermonde,  Ath,  Lille,  Tournay,  Mons, 
Douay,  Aire,  Bethune,  and  Bouchain ;  who  never  fought  a 
battle  that  he  did  not  win,  and  never  besieged  a  place  that 
he  did  not  take.  Marlborough's  own  private  character  is  the 
cause  of  this.  Military  glory  may,  and  too  often  does,  dazzle 
both  contemporaries  and  posterity,  until  the  crimes  as  well  as 
the  vices  of  heroes  are  forgotten.  But  even  a  few  stains  of 
personal  meanness  will  dim  a  soldier's  reputation  irreparably; 
and  Marlborough's  faults  were  of  a  peculiarly  base  and  mean 
order.  Our  feelings  towards  historical  personages  are  in  this 
respect  like  our  feelings  towards  private  acquaintances.  There 
are  actions  of  that  shabby  nature  that,  however  much  they 


1704]  BATTLE   OF   BLENHEIM  283 

may  be  outweighed  by  a  man's  good  deeds  on  a  general  esti- 
mate of  his  character,  we  never  can  feel  any  cordial  liking  for 
the  person  who  has  been  guilty  of  them.  Thus,  with  respect 
to  the  Duke  of  Marlborough,  it  goes  against  our  feelings  to 
admire  the  man  who  owed  his  first  advancement  in  life  to  the 
court  favor  which  he  and  his  family  acquired  through  his  sis- 
ter becoming  one  of  the  mistresses  of  the  Duke  of  York.  It 
is  repulsive  to  know  that  Marlborough  laid  the  foundation  of 
his  wealth  by  being  the  paid  lover  of  one  of  the  fair  and  frail 
favorites  of  Charles  II.  His  treachery  and  ingratitude  to  his 
patron  and  benefactor,  James  II.,  stand  out  in  dark  relief, 
even  in  that  age  of  thankless  perfidy.  He  was  almost  equally 
disloyal  to  his  new  master,  King  William ;  and  a  more  un-Eng- 
lish act  cannot  be  recorded  than  Godolphin's  and  Marlbor- 
ough's betrayal  to  the  French  court  in  1694  of  the  expedition 
then  designed  against  Brest,  an  act  of  treason  which  caused 
some  hundreds  of  English  soldiers  and  sailors  to  be  helplessly 
slaughtered  on  the  beach  in  Camaret  Bay. 

It  is,  however,  only  in  his  military  career  that  we  have  now 
to  consider  him ;  and  there  are  very  few  generals,  of  either 
ancient  or  modern  times,  whose  campaigns  will  bear  a  com- 
parison with  those  of  Marlborough,  either  for  the  masterly 
skill  with  which  they  were  planned,  or  for  the  bold  yet  pru- 
dent energy  with  which  each  plan  was  carried  into  execution. 
Marlborough  had  served  while  young  under  Turenne,  and 
had  obtained  the  marked  praise  of  that  great  tactician.  It 
would  be  difficult,  indeed,  to  name  a  single  quality  which  a 
general  ought  to  have,  and  with  which  Marlborough  was  not 
eminently  gifted.  What  principally  attracted  the  notice  of 
contemporaries  was  the  imperturbable  evenness  of  his  spirit. 
Voltaire  says  of  him  :  — 

"  He  had,  to  a  degree  above  all  other  generals  of  his  time, 
that  calm  courage  in  the  midst  of  tumult,  that  serenity  of  soul 
in  danger,  which  the  English  call  a  cool  head,  and  it  was  per- 
haps this  quality,  the  greatest  gift  of  nature  for  command, 
which  formerly  gave  the  English  so  many  advantages  over 
the  French  in  the  plains  of  Cressy,  Poictiers,  and  Agincourt." 

King  William's  knowledge  of  Marlborough's  high  abilities, 
though  he  knew  his  faithlessness  equally  well,  js  said  to  have 
caused  that  sovereign  in  his  last  illness  to  recommend  Marl- 


284  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1704 

borough  to  his  successor  as  the  fittest  person  to  command 
her  armies ;  but  Marlborough's  favor  with  the  new  queen  by- 
means  of  his  wife  was  so  high  that  he  was  certain  of  obtain- 
ing the  highest  employment ;  and  the  war  against  Louis 
opened  to  him  a  glorious  theater  for  the  display  of  those  mili- 
tary talents  which  he  had  before  only  had  an  opportunity  of 
exercising  in  a  subordinate  character,  and  on  far  less  con- 
spicuous scenes. 

He  was  not  only  made  captain-general  of  the  English 
forces  at  home  and  abroad,  but  such  was  the  authority  of 
England  in  the  council  of  the  Grand  Alliance,  and  Marl- 
borough was  so  skilled  in  winning  golden  opinions  from  all 
whom  he  met  with,  that,  on  his  reaching  the  Hague,  he  was 
received  with  transports  of  joy  by  the  Dutch,  and  it  was 
agreed  by  the  heads  of  that  republic,  and  the  minister  of  the 
emperor,  that  Marlborough  should  have  the  chief  command 
of  all  the  allied  armies. 

It  must  indeed,  in  justice  to  Marlborough,  be  borne  in 
mind  that  mere  military  skill  was  by  no  means  all  that  was 
required  of  him  in  this  arduous  and  invidious  station.  Had 
it  not  been  for  his  unrivaled  patience  and  sweetness  of 
temper,  and  his  marvelous  ability  in  discerning  the  character 
of  those  with  whom  he  had  to  act,  his  intuitive  perception 
of  those  who  were  to  be  thoroughly  trusted,  and  of  those  who 
were  to  be  amused  with  the  mere  semblance  of  respect  and 
confidence  —  had  not  Marlborough  possessed  and  employed, 
while  at  the  head  of  the  allied  armies,  all  the  qualifications 
of  a  polished  courtier  and  a  great  statesman,  he  never  would 
have  led  the  allied  armies  to  the  Danube.  The  Confederacy 
would  not  have  held  together  for  a  single  year.  His  great 
political  adversary,  Bolingbroke,  does  him  ample  justice  here. 
Bolingbroke,  after  referring  to  the  loss  which  King  William's 
death  seemed  to  inflict  on  the  cause  of  the  Allies,  observes 
that :  "  By  his  death,  the  Duke  of  Marlborough  was  raised  to 
the  head  of  the  army,  and,  indeed,  of  the  confederacy ;  where 
he,  a  new,  a  private  man,  a  subject,  acquired  by  merit  and  by 
management  a  more  deciding  influence  than  high  birth,  con- 
firmed authority,  and  even  the  crown  of  Great  Britain  had 
given  to  King  William.  Not  only  all  the  parts  of  that  vast 
machine,  the  Grand  Alliance,  were  kept  more  compact  and 


1704]'  BATTLE   OF   BLENHEIM  285 

entire ;  but  a  more  rapid  and  vigorous  motion  was  given  to 
the  whole ;  and  instead  of  languishing  and  disastrous  cam- 
paigns, we  saw  every  scene  of  the  war  full  of  action.  All 
those  wherein  he  appeared,  and  many  of  those  wherein  he 
was  not  then  an  actor,  but  abettor,  however,  of  their  action, 
were  crowned  with  the  most  triumphant  success. 

"  I  take  with  pleasure  this  opportunity  of  doing  justice  to 
that  great  man,  whose  faults  I  knew,  whose  virtues  I  admired; 
and  whose  memory,  as  the  greatest  general  and  as  the  great- 
est minister  that  our  country,  or  perhaps  any  other,  has  pro- 
duced, I  honor." 

War  was  formally  declared  by  the  Allies  against  France 
on  the  4th  of  May,  1702.  The  principal  scenes  of  its  opera- 
tion were,  at  first,  Flanders,  the  Upper  Rhine,  and  North 
Italy.  Marlborough  headed  the  allied  troops  in  Flanders 
during  the  first  two  years  of  the  war,  and  took  some  towns 
from  the  enemy,  but  nothing  decisive  occurred.  Nor  did  any 
actions  of  importance  take  place  during  this  period  between 
the  rival  armies  in  Italy.  But  in  the  center  of  that  line  from 
north  to  south,  from  the  mouth  of  the  Scheldt  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Po,  along  which  the  war  was  carried  on,  the  generals 
of  Louis  XIV.  acquired  advantages  in  1703  which  threatened 
one  chief  member  of  the  Grand  Alliance  with  utter  destruction. 
France  had  obtained  the  important  assistance  of  Bavaria  as 
her  confederate  in  the  war.  The  elector  of  this  powerful 
German  state  made  himself  master  of  the  strong  fortress  of 
Ulm,  and  opened  a  communication  with  the  French  armies 
on  the  Upper  Rhine.  By  this  junction  the  troops  of  Louis 
were  enabled  to  assail  the  emperor  in  the  very  heart  of 
Germany.  In  the  autumn  of  the  year  1703,  the  combined 
armies  of  the  elector  and  French  king  completely  defeated 
the  Imperialists  in  Bavaria ;  and  in  the  following  winter  they 
made  themselves  masters  of  the  important  cities  of  Augsburg 
and  Passau.  Meanwhile  the  French  army  of  the  Upper 
Rhine  and  Moselle  had  beaten  the  allied  armies  opposed  to 
them,  and  taken  Treves  and  Landau.  At  the  same  time  the 
discontents  in  Hungary  with  Austria  again  broke  out  into 
open  insurrection,  so  as  to  distract  the  attention  and  complete 
the  terror  of  the  emperor  and  his  council  at  Vienna. 

Louis  XIV.  ordered  the  next  campaign  to  be  commenced 


286  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1704 

by  his  troops  on  a  scale  of  grandeur  and  with  a  boldness  of 
enterprise  such  as  even  Napoleon's  military  schemes  have 
seldom  equaled.  On  the  extreme  left  of  the  line  of  the  war, 
in  the  Netherlands,  the  French  armies  were  to  act  only  on 
the  defensive.  The  fortresses  in  the  hands  of  the  French 
there  were  so  many  and  so  strong  that  no  serious  impression 
seemed  likely  to  be  made  by  the  Allies  on  the  French  frontier 
in  that  quarter  during  one  campaign ;  and  that  one  campaign 
was  to  give  France  such  triumphs  elsewhere  as  would  (it  was 
hoped)  determine  the  war.  Large  detachments  were,  there- 
fore, to  be  made  from  the  French  force  in  Flanders,  and  they 
were  to  be  led  by  Marshal  Villeroy  to  the  Moselle  and  Upper 
Rhine.  The  French  army  already  in  the  neighborhood  of 
those  rivers  was  to  march  under  Marshal  Tallard  through  the 
Black  Forest,  and  join  the  Elector  of  Bavaria  and  the  French 
troops  that  were  already  with  the  elector  under  Marshal  Mar- 
sin.  Meanwhile  the  French  army  of  Italy  was  to  advance 
through  the  Tyrol  into  Austria,  and  the  whole  forces  were  to 
combine  between  the  Danube  and  the  Inn.  A  strong  body 
of  troops  was  to  be  despatched  into  Hungary,  to  assist  and 
organize  the  insurgents  in  that  kingdom;  and  the  French 
grand  army  of  the  Danube  was  then,  in  collected  and  irre- 
sistible might,  to  march  upon  Vienna,  and  dictate  terms  of 
peace  to  the  emperor.  High  military  genius  was  shown  in 
the  formation  of  this  plan,  but  it  was  met  and  baffled  by  a 
genius  higher  still. 

Marlborough  had  watched,  with  the  deepest  anxiety,  the 
progress  of  the  French  arms  on  the  Rhine  and  in  Bavaria, 
and  he  saw  the  futility  of  carrying  on  a  war  of  posts  and  sieges 
in  Flanders  while  death-blows  to  the  empire  were  being  dealt 
on  the  Danube.  He  resolved,  therefore,  to  let  the  war  in 
Flanders  languish  for  a  year,  while  he  moved  with  all  the  dis- 
posable forces  that  he  could  collect  to  the  central  scenes  of 
decisive  operations.  Such  a  march  was  in  itself  difficult,  but 
Marlborough  had,  in  the  first  instance,  to  overcome  the  still 
greater  difficulty  of  obtaining  the  consent  and  cheerful  co- 
operation of  the  Allies,  especially  of  the  Dutch,  whose  frontier 
it  was  proposed  thus  to  deprive  of  the  larger  part  of  the  force 
which  had  hitherto  been  its  protection.  Fortunately,  among 
the  many  slothful,  the  many  foolish,  the  many  timid,  and  the 


1704]  BATTLE   OF   BLENHEIM  287 

not  few  treacherous  rulers,  statesmen,  and  generals  of  different 
nations  with  whom  he  had  to  deal,  there  were  two  men,  emi- 
nent both  in  ability  and  integrity,  who  entered  fully  into  Marl- 
borough's projects,  and  who,  from  the  stations  which  they 
occupied,  were  enabled  materially  to  forward  them.  One  of 
these  was  the  Dutch  statesman  Heinsius,  who  had  been  the 
cordial  supporter  of  King  William,  and  who  now,  with  equal 
zeal  and  good  faith,  supported  Marlborough  in  the  councils 
of  the  Allies ;  the  other  was  the  celebrated  general,  Prince 
Eugene,  whom  the  Austrian  cabinet  had  recalled  from  the 
Italian  frontier,  to  take  the  command  of  one  of  the  emperor's 
armies  in  Germany.  To  these  two  great  men,  and  a  few 
more,  Marlborough  communicated  his  plan  freely  and  unre- 
servedly ;  but  to  the  general  councils  of  his  allies  he  only  dis- 
closed part  of  his  daring  scheme.  He  proposed  to  the  Dutch 
that  he  should  march  from  Flanders  to  the  Upper  Rhine  and 
Moselle  with  the  British  troops  and  part  of  the  foreign  auxili- 
aries, and  commence  vigorous  operations  against  the  French 
armies  in  that  quarter,  while  General  Auverquerque,  with  the 
Dutch  and  the  remainder  of  the  auxiliaries,  maintained  a 
defensive  war  in  the  Netherlands.  Having  with  difficulty 
obtained  the  consent  of  the  Dutch  to  this  portion  of  his  proj- 
ect, he  exercised  the  same  diplomatic  zeal,  with  the  same 
success,  in  urging  the  king  of  Prussia,  and  other  princes  of 
the  empire,  to  increase  the  number  of  the  troops  which  they 
supplied,  and  to  post  them  in  places  convenient  for  his  own 
intended  movements. 

Marlborough  commenced  his  celebrated  march  on  the  19th 
of  May.  The  army  which  he  was  to  lead  had  been  assembled 
by  his  brother,  General  Churchill,  at  Bedburg,  not  far  from 
Maestricht,  on  the  Meuse ;  it  included  sixteen  thousand  Eng- 
lish troops,  and  consisted  of  fifty-one  battalions  of  foot  and 
ninety-two  squadrons  of  horse.  Marlborough  was  to  collect 
and  join  with  him  on  his  march  the  troops  of  Prussia,  Lune- 
burg,  and  Hesse,  quartered  on  the  Rhine,  and  eleven  Dutch 
battalions  that  were  stationed  at  Rothweil.  He  had  only 
marched  a  single  day,  when  a  series  of  interruptions,  com- 
plaints, and  requisitions  from  the  other  leaders  of  the  Allies 
began,  to  which  he  seemed  doomed  throughout  his  enterprise, 
and  which  would  have  caused  its  failure  in  the  hands  of  any 


288  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1704 

one  not  gifted  with  the  firmness  and  the  exquisite  temper  of 
Marlborough.  One  specimen  of  these  annoyances  and  Marl- 
borough's mode  of  dealing  with  them  may  suffice.  On  his 
encamping  at  Kupen,  on  the  20th,  he  received  an  express 
from  Auverquerque  pressing  him  to  halt,  because  Villeroy, 
who  commanded  the  French  army  in  Flanders,  had  quitted 
the  lines  which  he  had  been  occupying,  and  crossed  the  Meuse 
at  Namur  with  thirty-six  battalions  and  forty-five  squadrons, 
and  was  threatening  the  town  of  Huys.  At  the  same  time 
Marlborough  received  letters  from  the  Margrave  of  Baden 
and  Count  Wratislaw,  who  commanded  the  Imperialist  forces 
at  Stollhoffen,  near  the  left  bank  of  the  Rhine,  stating  that 
Tallard  had  made  a  movement  as  if  intending  to  cross  the 
Rhine,  and  urging  him  to  hasten  his  march  towards  the  lines 
of  Stollhoffen.  Marlborough  was  not  diverted  by  these  appli- 
cations from  the  prosecution  of  his  grand  design.  Conscious 
that  the  army  of  Villeroy  would  be  too  much  reduced  to  under- 
take offensive  operations  by  the  detachments  which  had 
already  been  made  towards  the  Rhine  and  those  which  must 
follow  his  own  march,  he  halted  only  a  day  to  quiet  the  alarms 
of  Auverquerque.  To  satisfy  also  the  margrave  he  ordered 
the  troops  of  Hompesch  and  Bulow  to  draw  towards  Philips- 
burg,  though  with  private  injunctions  not  to  proceed  beyond 
a  certain  distance.  He  even  exacted  a  promise  to  the  same 
effect  from  Count  Wratislaw,  who  at  this  juncture  arrived  at 
the  camp  to  attend  him  during  the  whole  campaign. 

Marlborough  reached  the  Rhine  at  Coblentz,  where  he 
crossed  that  river,  and  then  marched  along  its  right  bank  to 
Broubach  and  Mentz.  His  march,  though  rapid,  was  admira- 
bly conducted,  so  as  to  save  the  troops  from  all  unnecessary 
fatigue;  ample  supplies  of  provisions  were  ready,  and  the 
most  perfect  discipline  was  maintained.  By  degrees  Marl- 
borough obtained  more  reenforcements  from  the  Dutch  and 
the  other  confederates,  and  he  also  was  left  more  at  liberty 
by  them  to  follow  his  own  course.  Indeed,  before  even  a 
blow  was  struck,  his  enterprise  had  paralyzed  the  enemy,  and 
had  materially  relieved  Austria  from  the  pressure  of  the  war. 
Villeroy,  with  his  detachments  from  the  French-Flemish  army, 
was  completely  bewildered  by  Marlborough's  movements ; 
and,  unable  to  divine  where  it  was  that  the  English  general 


1704]  BATTLE   OF   BLENHEIM  289 

meant  to  strike  his  blow,  wasted  away  the  early  part  of  the 
summer  between  Flanders  and  the  Moselle  without  effecting 
anything.1 

Marshal  Tallard,  who  commanded  forty-five  thousand  men 
at  Strasburg,  and  who  had  been  destined  by  Louis  to  march 
early  in  the  year  into  Bavaria,  thought  that  Marlborough's 
march  along  the  Rhine  was  preliminary  to  an  attack  upon 
Alsace  ;  and  the  marshal  therefore  kept  his  forty-five  thousand 
men  back  in  order  to  support  France  in  that  quarter.  Marl- 
borough skilfully  encouraged  his  apprehensions  by  causing  a 
bridge  to  be  constructed  across  the  Rhine  at  Philipsburg,  and 
by  making  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse  advance  his  artillery  at 
Mannheim,  as  if  for  a  siege  of  Landau.  Meanwhile  the  Elector 
of  Bavaria  and  Marshal  Marsin,  suspecting  that  Marlborough's 
design  might  be  what  it  really  proved  to  be,  forbore  to  press 
upon  the  Austrians  opposed  to  them,  or  to  send  troops  into 
Hungary  ;  and  they  kept  back  so  as  to  secure  their  communi- 
cations with  France.  Thus,  when  Marlborough,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  June,  left  the  Rhine  and  marched  for  the  Danube, 
the  numerous  hostile  armies  were  uncombined,  and  unable  to 
check  him. 

"  With  such  skill  and  science  had  this  enterprise  been  con- 
certed that  at  the  very  moment  when  it  assumed  a  specific 
direction  the  enemy  was  no  longer  enabled  to  render  it  abor- 
tive. As  the  march  was  now  to  be  bent  towards  the  Danube, 
notice  was  given  for  the  Prussians,  Palatines,  and  Hessians, 
who  were  stationed  on  the  Rhine,  to  order  their  march  so  as 
to  join  the  main  body  in  its  progress.  At  the  same  time 
directions  were  sent  to  accelerate  the  advance  of  the  Danish 
auxiliaries  who  were  marching  from  the  Netherlands." 
[Coxe.] 

Crossing  the  river  Neckar,  Marlborough  marched  in  a  south- 
eastern direction  to  Mundelshene,  where  he  had  his  first  per- 
sonal interview  with  Prince  Eugene,  who  was  destined  to  be 
his  colleague  on  so  many  glorious  fields.  Thence,  through  a 
difficult  and  dangerous  country,  Marlborough  continued  his 
march  against  the  Bavarians,  whom  he  encountered  on  the 
2d  of  July,  on  the  heights  of  the  Schullenberg,  near  Donau- 
wert.  Marlborough  stormed  their  entrenched  camp,  crossed 
the  Danube,  took  several  strong  places  in  Bavaria,  and  made 


290  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1704 

himself  completely  master  of  the  elector's  dominions,  except 
the  fortified  cities  of  Munich  and  Augsburg.  But  the  elector's 
army,  though  defeated  at  Donauwert,  was  still  numerous  and 
strong ;  and  at  last  Marshal  Tallard,  when  thoroughly 
apprised  of  the  real  nature  of  Marlborough's  movements, 
crossed  the  Rhine.  He  was  suffered,  through  the  supineness 
of  the  German  general  at  Stollhoffen,  to  march  without  loss 
through  the  Black  Forest,  and  united  his  powerful  army  at 
Biberach  near  Augsburg  with  that  of  the  elector  and  the 
French  troops  under  Marshal  Marsin,  who  had  previously 
been  cooperating  with  the  Bavarians.  On  the  other  hand, 
Marlborough  recrossed  the  Danube,  and  on  the  nth  of 
August  united  his  army  with  the  Imperialist  forces  under 
Prince  Eugene.  The  combined  armies  occupied  a  position 
near  Hochstadt,  a  little  higher  up  the  left  bank  of  the  Danube 
than  Donauwert,  the  scene  of  Marlborough's  recent  victory, 
and  almost  exactly  on  the  ground  where  Marshal  Villars  and 
the  elector  had  defeated  an  Austrian  army  in  the  preceding 
year.  The  French  marshals  and  the  elector  were  now  in 
position  a  little  farther  to  the  east,  between  Blenheim  and 
Lutzingen,  and  with  the  little  stream  of  the  Nebel  between 
them  and  the  troops  of  Marlborough  and  Eugene.  The 
Gallo-Bavarian  army  consisted  of  about  sixty  thousand  men, 
and  had  sixty-one  pieces  of  artillery.  The  army  of  the  Allies 
was  about  fifty-six  thousand  strong,  with  fifty-two  guns.2 

Although  the  French  army  of  Italy  had  been  unable  to 
penetrate  into  Austria,  and  although  the  masterly  strategy  of 
Marlborough  had  hitherto  warded  off  the  destruction  with 
which  the  cause  of  the  Allies  seemed  menaced  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  campaign,  the  peril  was  still  most  serious.  It 
was  absolutely  necessary  for  Marlborough  to  attack  the 
enemy  before  Villeroy  should  be  roused  into  action.  There 
was  nothing  to  stop  that  general  and  his  army  from  marching 
into  Franconia,  whence  the  Allies  drew  their  principal  sup- 
plies ;  and,  besides  thus  distressing  them,  he  might,  by  march- 
ing on  and  joining  his  army  to  those  of  Tallard  and  the 
elector,  form  a  mass  which  would  overwhelm  the  force  under 
Marlborough  and  Eugene.  On  the  other  hand,  the  chances 
of  a  battle  seemed  perilous,  and  the  fatal  consequences  of  a 
defeat  were  certain.     The  inferiority  of  the  Allies  in  point  of 


1704]  BATTLE   OF   BLENHEIM  29 1 

number  was  not  very  great,  but  still  it  was  not  to  be  disre- 
garded ;  and  the  advantage  which  the  enemy  seemed  to  have 
in  the  composition  of  their  troops  was  striking.  Tallard  and 
Marsin  had  forty-five  thousand  Frenchmen  under  them,  all 
veterans,  and  all  trained  to  act  together:  the  elector's  own 
troops,  also,  were  good  soldiers.  Marlborough,  like  Welling- 
ton at  Waterloo,  headed  an  army,  of  which  the  larger  propor- 
tion consisted  not  of  English,  but  of  men  of  many  different 
nations  and  many  different  languages.  He  was  also  obliged 
to  be  the  assailant  in  the  action,  and  thus  to  expose  his  troops 
to  comparatively  heavy  loss  at  the  commencement  of  the 
battle,  while  the  enemy  would  fight  under  the  protection  of 
the  villages  and  lines  which  they  were  actively  engaged  in 
strengthening.  The  consequences  of  a  defeat  of  the  confed- 
erated army  must  have  broken  up  the  Grand  Alliance  and 
realized  the  proudest  hopes  of  the  French  king.  Mr.  Alison, 
in  his  admirable  military  history  of  the  Duke  of  Marlborough, 
has  truly  stated  the  effects  which  would  have  taken  place  if 
France  had  been  successful  in  the  war.  And  when  the  posi- 
tion of  the  confederates  at  the  time  when  Blenheim  was 
fought  is  remembered ;  when  we  recollect  the  exhaustion  of 
Austria,  the  menacing  insurrection  of  Hungary,  the  feuds 
and  jealousies  of  the  German  princes,  the  strength  and  activ- 
ity of  the  Jacobite  party  in  England,  the  imbecility  of  nearly 
all  the  Dutch  statesmen  of  the  time,  and  the  weakness  of 
Holland  if  deprived  of  her  allies,  we  may  adopt  his  words  in 
speculating  on  what  would  have  ensued  if  France  had  been 
victorious  in  the  battle,  and  "if  a  power  animated  by  the 
ambition,  guided  by  the  fanaticism,  and  directed  by  the  ability 
of  that  of  Louis  XIV.  had  gained  the  ascendency  in  Europe. 
Beyond  all  question,  a  universal  despotic  dominion  would 
have  been  established  over  the  bodies,  a  cruel  spiritual  thraU 
dom  over  the  minds  of  men.  France  and  Spain  united  under 
Bourbon  princes,  and  in  a  close  family  alliance  —  the  empire 
of  Charlemagne  with  that  of  Charles  V. ;  the  power  which 
revoked  the  Edict  of  Nantes  and  perpetrated  the  massacre  of 
St.  Bartholomew,  with  that  which  banished  the  Moriscoes 
and  established  the  Inquisition,  would  have  proved  irresisti- 
ble, and  beyond  example  destructive  to  the  best  interests  of 
mankind. 


292  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1704 

"  The  Protestants  might  have  been  driven,  like  the  pagan 
heathens  of  old  by  the  son  of  Pepin,  beyond  the  Elbe ;  the 
Stuart  race,  and  with  them  Romish  ascendency,  might  have 
been  reestablished  in  England ;  the  fire  lighted  by  Latimer 
and  Ridley  might  have  been  extinguished  in  blood ;  and  the 
energy  breathed  by  religious  freedom  into  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race  might  have  expired.  The  destinies  of  the  world  would 
have  been  changed.  Europe,  instead  of  a  variety  of  independ- 
ent states  whose  mutual  hostility  kept  alive  courage  while 
their  national  rivalry  stimulated  talent,  would  have  sunk  into 
the  slumber  attendant  on  universal  dominion.  The  colonial 
empire  of  England  would  have  withered  away  and  perished, 
as  that  of  Spain  has  done  in  the  grasp  of  the  Inquisition. 
The  Anglo-Saxon  race  would  have  been  arrested  in  its  mission 
to  overspread  the  earth  and  subdue  it.  The  centralized  des- 
potism of  the  Roman  empire  would  have  been  renewed  on 
Continental  Europe ;  the  chains  of  Romish  tyranny,  and  with 
them  the  general  infidelity  of  France  before  the  Revolution, 
would  have  extinguished  or  perverted  thought  in  the  British 
islands." 

Marlborough's  words  at  the  council  of  war,  when  a  battle 
was  resolved  on,  are  remarkable,  and  they  deserve  recording. 
We  know  them  on  the  authority  of  his  chaplain,  Mr.  (after- 
wards Bishop)  Hare,  who  accompanied  him  throughout  the 
campaign,  and  in  whose  journal  the  biographers  of  Marl- 
borough have  found  many  of  their  best  materials.  Marl- 
borough's words  to  the  officers  who  remonstrated  with  him 
on  the  seeming  temerity  of  attacking  the  enemy  in  their 
position  were,  "  I  know  the  danger,  yet  a  battle  is  absolutely 
necessary  ;  and  I  rely  on  the  bravery  and  discipline  of  the 
troops,  which  will  make  amends  for  our  disadvantages."  In 
the  evening  orders  were  issued  for  a  general  engagement, 
and  received  by  the  army  with  an  alacrity  which  justified  his 
confidence. 

The  French  and  Bavarians  were  posted  behind  a  little 
stream  called  the  Nebel,  which  runs  almost  from  north  to 
south  into  the  Danube  immediately  in  front  of  the  village  of 
Blenheim.  The  Nebel  flows  along  a  little  valley,  and  the 
French  occupied  the  rising  ground  to  the  west  of  it.  The 
village  of  Blenheim  was  the  extreme  right  of  their  position, 


1704]  BATTLE   OF   BLENHEIM  293 

and  the  village  of  Lutzingen,  about  three  miles  north  of 
Blenheim,  formed  their  left.  Beyond  Lutzingen  are  the 
rugged  high  grounds  of  the  Godd  Berg,  and  Eich  Berg,  on 
the  skirts  of  which  some  detachments  were  posted  so  as  to 
secure  the  Gallo-Bavarian  position  from  being  turned  on  the 
left  flank.  The  Danube  protected  their  right  flank;  and  it 
was  only  in  front  that  they  could  be  attacked.  The  villages 
of  Blenheim  and  Lutzingen  had  been  strongly  palisaded  and 
entrenched.  Marshal  Tallard,  who  held  the  chief  command, 
took  his  station  at  Blenheim ;  Prince  Maximilian  the  Elector 
and  Marshal  Marsin  commanded  on  the  left.  Tallard  gar- 
risoned Blenheim  with  twenty-six  battalions  of  French  infantry 
and  twelve  squadrons  of  French  cavalry.  Marsin  and  the 
elector  had  twenty-two  battalions  of  infantry,  and  thirty-six 
squadrons  of  cavalry  in  front  of  the  village  of  Lutzingen. 
The  center  was  occupied  by  fourteen  battalions  of  infantry, 
including  the  celebrated  Irish  brigade.  These  were  posted 
in  the  little  hamlet  of  Oberglau,  which  lies  somewhat  nearer 
to  Lutzingen  than  to  Blenheim.  Eighty  squadrons  of  cavalry 
and  seven  battalions  of  foot  were  ranged  between  Ober- 
glau and  Blenheim.  Thus  the  French  position  was  very 
strong  at  each  extremity,  but  was  comparatively  weak  in 
the  center.  Tallard  seems  to  have  relied  on  the  swampy 
state  of  the  part  of  the  valley  that  reaches  from  below  Ober- 
glau to  Blenheim  for  preventing  any  serious  attack  on  this 
part  of  his  line. 

The  army  of  the  Allies  was  formed  into  two  great  divisions; 
the  largest  being  commanded  by  the  duke  in  person,  and 
being  destined  to  act  against  Tallard,  while  Prince  Eugene 
led  the  other  division,  which  consisted  chiefly  of  cavalry,  and 
was  intended  to  oppose  the  enemy  under  Marsin  and  the 
elector.  As  they  approached  the  enemy,  Marlborough's 
troops  formed  the  left  and  the  center,  while  Eugene's  formed 
the  right  of  the  entire  army.  Early  in  the  morning  of  the 
13th  of  August,  the  Allies  left  their  own  camp  and  marched 
towards  the  enemy.  A  thick  haze  covered  the  ground,  and 
it  was  not  until  the  allied  right  and  center  had  advanced 
nearly  within  cannon-shot  of  the  enemy  that  Tallard  was 
aware  of  their  approach.  He  made  his  preparations  with 
what  haste  he  could,  and  about  eight  o'clock  a  heavy  fire  of 


294  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1704 

artillery  was  opened  from  the  French  right  on  the  advancing 
left  wing  of  the  British.  Marlborough  ordered  up  some  of 
his  batteries  to  reply  to  it,  and  while  the  columns  that  were 
to  form  the  allied  left  and  center  deployed,  and  took  up  their 
proper  stations  in  the  line,  a  warm  cannonade  was  kept  up 
by  the  guns  on  both  sides. 

The  ground  which  Eugene's  columns  had  to  traverse  was 
peculiarly  difficult,  especially  for  the  passage  of  the  artillery ; 
and  it  was  nearly  midday  before  he  could  get  his  troops  into 
line  opposite  to  Lutzingen.  During  this  interval,  Marl- 
borough ordered  divine  service  to  be  performed  by  the  chap- 
lains at  the  head  of  each  regiment,  and  then  rode  along  the 
lines,  and  found  both  officers  and  men  in  the  highest  spirits, 
and  waiting  impatiently  for  the  signal  for  the  attack.  At 
length  an  aide-de-camp  galloped  up  from  the  right  with  the 
welcome  news  that  Eugene  was  ready.  Marlborough  instantly 
sent  Lord  Cutts,  with  a  strong  brigade  of  infantry,  to  assault 
the  village  of  Blenheim,  while  he  himself  led  the  main  body 
down  the  eastward  slope  of  the  valley  of  the  Nebel,  and  pre- 
pared to  effect  the  passage  of  the  stream. 

The  assault  on  Blenheim,  though  bravely  made,  was  repulsed 
with  severe  loss  ;  and  Marlborough,  finding  how  strongly  that 
village  was  garrisoned,  desisted  from  any  further  attempts  to 
carry  it,  and  bent  all  his  energies  to  breaking  the  enemy's  line 
between  Blenheim  and  Oberglau.  Some  temporary  bridges 
had  been  prepared,  and  planks  and  fascines  had  been  col- 
lected ;  and  by  the  aid  of  these,  and  a  little  stone  bridge  which 
crossed  the  Nebel,  near  a  hamlet  called  Unterglau,  that  lay  in 
the  center  of  the  valley,  Marlborough  succeeded  in  getting 
several  squadrons  across  the  Nebel,  though  it  was  divided  into 
several  branches,  and  the  ground  between  them  was  soft  and 
in  places  little  better  than  a  mere  marsh.  But  the  French 
artillery  was  not  idle.  The  cannon-balls  plunged  incessantly 
among  the  advancing  squadrons  of  the  Allies ;  and  bodies  of 
French  cavalry  rode  frequently  down  from  the  western  ridge, 
to  charge  them  before  they  had  time  to  form  on  the  firm 
ground.  It  was  only  by  supporting  his  men  by  fresh  troops, 
and  by  bringing  up  infantry,  who  checked  the  advance  of  the 
enemy's  horse  by  their  steady  fire,  that  Marlborough  was  able 
to  save  his  army  in  this  quarter  from  a  repulse,  which,  follow- 


1704]  BATTLE   OF   BLENHEIM  295 

ing  the  failure  of  the  attack  upon  Blenheim,  would  probably 
have  been  fatal  to  the  Allies.  By  degrees  his  cavalry  strug- 
gled over  the  blood-stained  streams ;  the  infantry  were  also 
now  brought  across,  so  as  to  keep  in  check  the  French  troops 
who  held  Blenheim,  and  who,  when  no  longer  assailed  in 
front,  had  begun  to  attack  the  Allies  on  their  left  with  con- 
siderable effect. 

Marlborough  had  thus  at  last  succeeded  in  drawing  up  the 
whole  left  wing  of  his  army  beyond  the  Nebel,  and  was  about 
to  press  forward  with  it,  when  he  was  called  away  to  another 
part  of  the  field  by  a  disaster  that  had  befallen  his  center. 
The  Prince  of  Holstein-Beck  had,  with  eleven  Hanoverian  bat- 
talions, passed  the  Nebel  opposite  to  Oberglau,  when  he  was 
charged  and  utterly  routed  by  the  Irish  brigade  which  held 
that  village.  The  Irish  drove  the  Hanoverians  back  with 
heavy  slaughter,  broke  completely  through  the  line  of  the 
Allies,  and  nearly  achieved  a  success  as  brilliant  as  that  which 
the  same  brigade  afterwards  gained  at  Fontenoy.  But  at 
Blenheim  their  ardor  in  pursuit  led  them  too  far.  Marl- 
borough came  up  in  person,  and  dashed  in  upon  their  exposed 
flank  with  some  squadrons  of  British  cavalry.  The  Irish 
reeled  back,  and  as  they  strove  to  regain  the  height  of  Ober- 
glau, their  column  was  raked  through  and  through  by  the  fire 
of  three  battalions  of  the  Allies,  which  Marlborough  had 
summoned  up  from  the  reserve.  Marlborough  having  re- 
established the  order  and  communication  of  the  Allies  in  this 
quarter,  now,  as  he  returned  to  his  own  left  wing,  sent  to  learn 
how  his  colleague  fared  against  Marsin  and  the  elector,  and 
to  inform  Eugene  of  his  own  success. 

Eugene  had  hitherto  not  been  equally  fortunate.  He  had 
made  three  attacks  on  the  enemy  opposed  to  him,  and  had 
been  thrice  driven  back.  It  was  only  by  his  own  desperate 
personal  exertions,  and  the  remarkable  steadiness  of  the  regi- 
ments of  Prussian  infantry  which  were  under  him,  that  he 
was  able  to  save  his  wing  from  being  totally  defeated.  But 
it  was  on  the  southern  part  of  the  battle-field,  on  the  ground 
which  Marlborough  had  won  beyond  the  Nebel  with  such 
difficulty,  that  the  crisis  of  the  battle  was  to  be  decided. 

Like  Hannibal,  Marlborough  relied  principally  on  his  cavalry 
for  achieving  his  decisive  successes,  and  it  was  by  his  cavalry 


296  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1704 

that  Blenheim,  the  greatest  of  his  victories,  was  won.  The 
battle  had  lasted  till  five  in  the  afternoon.  Marlborough  had 
now  eight  thousand  horsemen  drawn  up  in  two  lines,  and  in 
the  most  perfect  order  for  a  general  attack  on  the  enemy's 
line  along  the  space  between  Blenheim  and  Oberglau.  The 
infantry  was  drawn  up  in  battalions  in  their  rear,  so  as  to  sup- 
port them  if  repulsed,  and  to  keep  in  check  the  large  masses 
of  the  French  that  still  occupied  the  village  of  Blenheim. 
Tallard  now  interlaced  his  squadrons  of  cavalry  with  battalions 
of  infantry ;  and  Marlborough,  by  a  corresponding  movement, 
brought  several  regiments  of  infantry  and  some  pieces  of 
artillery  to  his  front  line,  at  intervals  between  the  bodies  of 
horse.  A  little  after  five,  Marlborough  commenced  the  decisive 
movement,  and  the  allied  cavalry,  strengthened  and  supported 
by  foot  and  guns,  advanced  slowly  from  the  lower  ground 
near  the  Nebel  up  the  slope  to  where  the  French  cavalry, 
ten  thousand  strong,  awaited  them.  On  riding  over  the  sum- 
mit of  the  acclivity,  the  Allies  were  received  with  so  hot  a  fire 
from  the  French  artillery  and  small  arms  that  at  first  the 
cavalry  recoiled,  but  without  abandoning  the  high  ground. 
The  guns  and  the  infantry  which  they  had  brought  with  them 
maintained  the  contest  with  spirit  and  effect.  The  French 
fire  seemed  to  slacken.  Marlborough  instantly  ordered  a 
charge  along  the  line.  The  allied  cavalry  galloped  forward 
at  the  enemy's  squadrons,  and  the  hearts  of  the  French  horse- 
men failed  them.  Discharging  their  carbines  at  an  idle  dis- 
tance, they  wheeled  round  and  spurred  from  the  field,  leaving 
the  nine  infantry  battalions  of  their  comrades  to  be  ridden 
down  by  the  torrent  of  the  allied  cavalry.  The  battle  was 
now  won.  Tallard  and  Marsin,  severed  from  each  other, 
thought  only  of  retreat.  Tallard  drew  up  the  squadrons  of 
horse  which  he  had  left,  in  a  line  extended  towards  Blenheim, 
and  sent  orders  to  the  infantry  in  that  village  to  leave  and  join 
him  without  delay.  But  long  ere  his  orders  could  be  obeyed 
the  conquering  squadrons  of  Marlborough  had  wheeled  to  the 
left  and  thundered  down  on  the  feeble  army  of  the  French 
marshal.  Part  of  the  force  which  Tallard  had  drawn  up  for 
this  last  effort  were  driven  into  the  Danube ;  part  fled  with 
their  general  to  the  village  of  Sonderheim,  where  they  were 
soon  surrounded  by  the  victorious  Allies  and  compelled  to 


1704]  BATTLE    OF   BLENHEIM  297 

surrender.  Meanwhile,  Eugene  had  renewed  his  attack  upon 
the  Gallo-Bavarian  left,  and  Marsin,  finding  his  colleague 
utterly  routed,  and  his  own  right  flank  uncovered,  prepared  to 
retreat.  He  and  the  elector  succeeded  in  withdrawing  a  con- 
siderable part  of  their  troops  in  tolerable  order  to  Dillingen ; 
but  the  large  body  of  French  who  garrisoned  Blenheim  were 
left  exposed  to  certain  destruction.  Marlborough  speedily 
occupied  all  the  outlets  from  the  village  with  his  victorious 
troops,  and  then,  collecting  his  artillery  round  it,  he  com- 
menced a  cannonade  that  speedily  would  have  destroyed  Blen- 
heim itself  and  all  who  were  in  it.  After  several  gallant  but 
unsuccessful  attempts  to  cut  their  way  through  the  Allies,  the 
French  in  Blenheim  were  at  length  compelled  to  surrender 
at  discretion ;  and  twenty-four  battalions,  and  twelve  squad- 
rons, with  all  their  officers,  laid  down  their  arms  and  became 
the  captives  of  Marlborough. 

"Such,"  said  Voltaire,  "was  the  celebrated  battle  which 
the  French  call  the  battle  of  Hochstet,  the  Germans  Plentheim, 
and  the  English  Blenheim.  The  conquerors  had  about  five 
thousand  killed  and  eight  thousand  wounded,  the  greater 
part  being  on  the  side  of  Prince  Eugene.  The  French  army 
was  almost  entirely  destroyed  :  of  sixty  thousand  men,  so  long 
victorious,  there  never  reassembled  more  than  twenty  thousand 
effective.  About  twelve  thousand  killed,  fourteen  thousand 
prisoners,  all  the  cannon,  a  prodigious  number  of  colors  and 
standards,  all  the  tents  and  equipages,  the  general  of  the 
army,  and  one  thousand  two  hundred  officers  of  mark  in  the 
power  of  the  conqueror,  signalized  that  day !  " 

Ulm,  Landau,  Treves,  and  Traerbach  surrendered  to  the 
allies  before  the  close  of  the  year.  Bavaria  submitted  to  the 
emperor,  and  the  Hungarians  laid  down  their  arms.  Germany 
was  completely  delivered  from  France  ;  and  the  military  as- 
cendency of  the  arms  of  the  Allies  was  completely  established. 
Throughout  the  rest  of  the  war  Louis  fought  only  in  defense. 
Blenheim  had  dissipated  forever  his  once  proud  visions  of 
almost  universal  conquest. 

Notes 

1  "  Marshal  Villeroy,"  says  Voltaire.  "  who  had  wished  to  follow  Marl- 
borough on  his  first  marches,  suddenly  lost  sight  of  him  altogether  and 


298  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1704 

only  learned  where  he  really  was  on  hearing  of  his  victory  at  Donauwert." 
—  Steele  de  Louis  XIV. 

2  A  short  time  before  the  War  of  the  Succession  the  musket  and  bayonet 
had  been  made  the  arms  of  all  the  French  infantry.  It  had  formerly  been 
usual  to  mingle  pikemen  with  musketeers.  The  other  European  nations 
followed  the  example  of  France,  and  the  weapons  used  at  Blenheim  were 
substantially  the  same  as  those  still  employed. 

Synopsis  of   Events  between  the  Battle  of  Blenheim, 
1704,  and  the  Battle  of  Pultowa,  1709 

1705.  The  Archduke  Charles  lands  in  Spain  with  a  small 
English  army  under  Lord  Peterborough,  who  takes  Barcelona. 

1706.  Marlborough's  victory  at  Ramilies. 

1707.  The  English  army  in  Spain  is  defeated  at  the  battle 
of  Almanza. 

1708.  Marlborough's  victory  at  Oudenarde. 


1709]  BATTLE   OF   PULTOWA  299 


CHAPTER    XII 

The  Battle  of  Pultowa,   1 709 

"  Dread  Pultowa's  day, 
When  fortune  left  the  royal  Swede, 
Around  a  slaughtered  army  lay, 

No  more  to  combat  and  to  bleed. 
The  power  and  fortune  of  the  war 
Had  passed  to  the  triumphant  Czar."  —  Byron. 

NAPOLEON  prophesied  at  St.  Helena  that  all  Europe 
would  soon  be  either  Cossack  or  Republican.  Four 
years  ago,  the  fulfilment  of  the  last  of  these  alterna- 
tives appeared  most  probable.  But  the  democratic  move- 
ments of  1848  were  sternly  repressed  in  1849.  The  absolute 
authority  of  a  single  ruler,  and  the  austere  stillness  of  martial 
law,  are  now  paramount  in  the  capitals  of  the  Continent, 
which  lately  owned  no  sovereignty  save  the  will  of  the  multi- 
tude, and  where  that  which  the  democrat  calls  his  sacred  right 
of  insurrection  was  so  loudly  asserted  and  so  often  fiercely 
enforced.  Many  causes  have  contributed  to  bring  about  this 
reaction,  but  the  most  effective  and  the  most  permanent  have 
been  Russian  influence  and  Russian  arms.  Russia  is  now 
the  avowed  and  acknowledged  champion  of  Monarchy  against 
Democracy  —  of  constituted  authority,  however  acquired, 
against  revolution  and  change,  for  whatever  purpose  desired  ; 
of  the  imperial  supremacy  of  strong  states  over  their  weaker 
neighbors  against  all  claims  for  political  independence  and  all 
striving  for  separate  nationality.  She  has  crushed  the  heroic 
Hungarians  ;  and  Austria,  for  whom  nominally  she  crushed 
them,  is  now  one  of  her  dependents.  Whether  the  rumors  of 
her  being  about  to  engage  in  fresh  enterprises  be  well  or  ill 
founded,  it  is  certain  that  recent  events  must  have  fearfully 
augmented  the  power  of  the  Muscovite  empire,  which,  even 


300  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1709 

previously,  had  been  the  object  of  well-founded  anxiety  to  all 
Western  Europe. 

It  was  truly  stated,  twelve  years  ago,  that "  the  acquisitions 
which  Russia  has  made  within  the  [then]  last  sixty-four  years 
are  equal  in  extent  and  importance  to  the  whole  empire  she 
had  in  Europe  before  that  time  ;  that  the  acquisitions  she  has 
made  from  Sweden  are  greater  than  what  remains  of  that 
ancient  kingdom ;  that  her  acquisitions  from  Poland  are  as 
large  as  the  whole  Austrian  empire ;  that  the  territory  she 
has  wrested  from  Turkey  in  Europe  is  equal  to  the  dominions 
of  Prussia,  exclusive  of  her  Rhenish  provinces ;  and  that  her 
acquisitions  from  Turkey  in  Asia  are  equal  in  extent  to  all  the 
smaller  states  of  Germany,  the  Rhenish  provinces  of  Prussia, 
Belgium,  and  Holland  taken  together ;  that  the  country  she  has 
conquered  from  Persia  is  about  the  size  of  England ;  that  her  ac- 
quisitions in  Tartary  have  an  area  equal  to  Turkey  in  Europe, 
Greece,  Italy,  and  Spain.  In  sixty-four  years  she  has  advanced 
her  frontier  eight  hundred  and  fifty  miles  towards  Vienna,  Ber- 
lin, Dresden,  Munich,  and  Paris;  she  has  approached  four 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  nearer  to  Constantinople;  she  has  pos- 
sessed herself  of  the  capital  of  Poland,  and  has  advanced 
to  within  a  few  miles  of  the  capital  of  Sweden,  from  which, 
when  Peter  the  Great  mounted  the  throne,  her  frontier  was 
distant  three  hundred  miles.  Since  that  time  she  has  stretched 
herself  forward  about  one  thousand  miles  towards  India,  and 
the  same  distance  towards  the  capital  of  Persia." 

Such,  at  that  period,  had  been  the  recent  aggrandizement 
of  Russia ;  and  the  events  of  the  last  few  years,  by  weakening 
and  disuniting  all  her  European  neighbors,  have  immeasurably 
augmented  the  relative  superiority  of  the  Muscovite  empire 
over  all  the  other  Continental  powers. 

With  a  population  exceeding  sixty  millions,  all  implicitly 
obeying  the  impulse  of  a  single  ruling  mind  ;  with  a  territorial 
area  of  six  millions  and  a  half  of  square  miles ;  with  a  stand- 
ing army  eight  hundred  thousand  strong ;  with  powerful  fleets 
on  the  Baltic  and  Black  seas ;  with  a  skilful  host  of  diplomatic 
agents  planted  in  every  court  and  among  every  tribe  ;  with  the 
confidence  which  unexpected  success  creates,  and  the  sagacity 
which  long  experience  fosters,  Russia  now  grasps  with  an 
armed  right  hand  the  tangled  thread  of    European  politics 


1709]  BATTLE    OF    PULTOWA  301 

and  issues  her  mandate  as  the  arbitress  of  the  movements  of 
the  age.  Yet  a  century  and  a  half  have  hardly  elapsed  since 
she  was  first  recognized  as  a  member  of  the  drama  of  modern 
European  history  —  previously  to  the  battle  of  Pultowa,  Russia 
played  no  part.  Charles  V.  and  his  great  rival,  our  Elizabeth 
and  her  adversary,  Philip  of  Spain,  the  Guises,  Sully,  Riche- 
lieu, Cromwell,  De  Witt,  William  of  Orange,  and  the  other  lead- 
ing spirits  of  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  thought 
no  more  about  the  Muscovite  czar  than  we  now  think  about  the 
king  of  Timbuctoo.  Even  as  late  as  1735,  Lord  Bolingbroke, 
in  his  admirable  "  Letters  on  History,"  speaks  of  the  history 
of  the  Muscovites  as  having  no  relation  to  the  knowledge 
which  a  practical  English  statesman  ought  to  acquire.  It  may 
be  doubted  whether  a  cabinet  council  often  takes  place  now  in 
our  Foreign  Office  without  Russia  being  uppermost  in  every 
English  statesman's  thoughts. 

But  though  Russia  remained  thus  long  unheeded  amid  her 
snows,  there  was  a  northern  power  the  influence  of  which 
was  acknowledged  in  the  principal  European  quarrels,  and 
whose  good-will  was  sedulously  courted  by  many  of  the  bold- 
est chiefs  and  ablest  councilors  of  the  leading  states.  This 
was  Sweden ;  Sweden,  on  whose  ruins  Russia  has  risen,  but 
whose  ascendency  over  her  semibarbarous  neighbors  was  com- 
plete until  the  fatal  battle  that  now  forms  our  subject. 

As  early  as  1542  France  had  sought  the  alliance  of  Sweden 
to  aid  her  in  her  struggle  against  Charles  V.  And  the  name 
of  Gustavus  Adolphus  is  of  itself  sufficient  to  remind  us  that 
in  the  great  contest  for  religious  liberty  of  which  Germany  was 
for  thirty  years  the  arena,  it  was  Sweden  that  rescued  the  fall- 
ing cause  of  Protestantism ;  and  it  was  Sweden  that  princi- 
pally dictated  the  remodeling  of  the  European  state  system 
at  the  peace  of  Westphalia. 

From  the  proud  preeminence  in  which  the  valor  of  the 
"Lion  of  the  North,"  and  of  Torstenston,  Bannier,  Wrangel, 
and  the  other  generals  of  Gustavus,  guided  by  the  wisdom  of 
Oxenstiern,  had  placed  Sweden,  the  defeat  of  Charles  XII.  at 
Pultowa  hurled  her  down  at  once  and  forever.  Her  efforts  dur- 
ing the  wars  of  the  French  Revolution  to  assume  a  leading  part 
in  European  politics  met  with  instant  discomfiture,  and  almost 
provoked  derision.     But  the  Sweden  whose  scepter  was  be- 


302  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1709 

queathed  to  Christina,  and  whose  alliance  Cromwell  valued 
so  highly,  was  a  different  power  from  the  Sweden  of  the  pres- 
ent day.  Finland,  Ingria,  Livonia,  Esthonia,  Carelia,  and  other 
districts  east  of  the  Baltic  then  were  Swedish  provinces;  and 
the  possession  of  Pomerania,  Rugen,  and  Bremen  made  her 
an  important  member  of  the  Germanic  empire.  These  terri- 
tories are  now  all  reft  from  her ;  and  the  most  valuable  of  them 
form  the  staple  of  her  victorious  rival's  strength.  Could  she 
resume  them,  could  the  Sweden  of  1648  be  reconstructed,  we 
should  have  a  first-class  Scandinavian  state  in  the  north, 
well  qualified  to  maintain  the  balance  of  power  and  check 
the  progress  of  Russia ;  whose  power,  indeed,  never  could 
have  become  formidable  to  Europe  save  by  Sweden  becom- 
ing weak. 

The  decisive  triumph  of  Russia  over  Sweden  at  Pultowa 
was  therefore  all-important  to  the  world,  on  account  of  what 
it  overthrew  as  well  as  for  what  it  established  ;  and  it  is  the 
more  deeply  interesting  because  it  was  not  merely  the  crisis 
of  a  struggle  between  two  states,  but  it  was  a  trial  of  strength 
between  two  great  races  of  mankind.  We  must  bear  in 
mind  that  while  the  Swedes,  like  the  English,  the  Dutch,  and 
others,  belong  to  the  Germanic  race,  the  Russians  are  a 
Sclavonic  people.  Nations  of  Sclavonian  origin  have  long 
occupied  the  greater  part  of  Europe  eastward  of  the  Vistula, 
and  the  populations  also  of  Bohemia,  Croatia,  Servia,  Dalma- 
tia,  and  other  important  regions  westward  of  that  river  are 
Sclavonic.  In  the  long  and  varied  conflicts  between  them 
and  the  Germanic  nations  that  adjoin  them,  the  Germanic 
race  had,  before  Pultowa,  almost  always  maintained  a  superi- 
ority. With  the  single  but  important  exception  of  Poland, 
no  Sclavonic  state  had  made  any  considerable  figure  in 
history  before  the  time  when  Peter  the  Great  won  his  great 
victory  over  the  Swedish  king.1  What  Russia  has  done  since 
that  time  we  know  and  we  feel.  And  some  of  the  wisest  and 
best  men  of  our  own  age  and  nation,  who  have  watched  with 
deepest  care  the  annals  and  the  destinies  of  humanity,  have 
believed  that  the  Sclavonic  element  in  the  population  of 
Europe  has  as  yet  only  partially  developed  its  powers ;  that, 
while  other  races  of  mankind  (our  own,  the  Germanic,  in- 
cluded) have  exhausted  their  creative  energies  and  completed 


1709]  BATTLE   OF   PULTOWA  303 

their  allotted  achievements,  the  Sclavonic  race  has  yet  a  great 
career  to  run  ;  and  that  the  narrative  of  Sclavonic  ascend- 
ency is  the  remaining  page  that  will  conclude  the  history  of 
the  world. 

Let  it  not  be  supposed  that  in  thus  regarding  the  primary 
triumph  of  Russia  over  Sweden  as  a  victory  of  the  Sclavonic 
over  the  Germanic  race  we  are  dealing  with  matters  of  mere 
ethnological  pedantry,  or  with  themes  of  mere  speculative 
curiosity.  The  fact  that  Russia  is  a  Sclavonic  empire  is  a 
fact  of  immense  practical  influence  at  the  present  moment. 
Half  the  inhabitants  of  the  Austrian  empire  are  Sclavonian. 
The  population  of  the  larger  part  of  Turkey  in  Europe  is  of 
the  same  race.  Silesia,  Posen,  and  other  parts  of  the  Prus- 
sian dominions  are  principally  Sclavonic.  And  during  late 
years  an  enthusiastic  zeal  for  blending  all  Sclavonians  into 
one  great  united  Sclavonic  empire  has  been  growing  up  in 
these  countries,  which,  however  we  may  deride  its  principle, 
is  not  the  less  real  and  active,  and  of  which  Russia,  as  the 
head  and  champion  of  the  Sclavonic  race,  knows  well  how  to 
take  her  advantage.2 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  Russia  owes  her  very  name  to  a 
band  of  Swedish  invaders  who  conquered  her  a  thousand 
years  ago.  They  were  soon  absorbed  in  the  Sclavonic  popu- 
lation, and  every  trace  of  the  Swedish  character  had  disap- 
peared in  Russia  for  many  centuries  before  her  invasion  by 
Charles  XII.  She  was  long  the  victim  and  the  slave  of  the 
Tartars ;  and  for  many  considerable  periods  of  years  the 
Poles  held  her  in  subjugation.  Indeed,  if  we  except  the  ex- 
peditions of  some  of  the  early  Russian  chiefs  against  Byzan- 
tium, and  the  reign  of  Ivan  Vasilovitch,  the  history  of  Russia 
before  the  time  of  Peter  the  Great  is  one  long  tale  of  suffer- 
ing and  degradation. 

But  whatever  may  have  been  the  amount  of  national 
injuries  that  she  sustained  from  Swede,  from  Tartar,  or  from 
Pole  in  the  ages  of  her  weakness,  she  has  certainly  retaliated 
tenfold  during  the  century  and  a  half  of  her  strength.  Her 
rapid  transition  at  the  commencement  of  that  period  from 
being  the  prey  of  every  conqueror  to  being  the  conqueror  of 
all  with  whom  she  comes  into  contact,  to  being  the  oppressor 
instead  of  the  oppressed,  is  almost  without  a  parallel  in  the 


304  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1709 

history  of  nations.  It  was  the  work  of  a  single  ruler ;  who, 
himself  without  education,  promoted  science  and  literature 
among  barbaric  millions ;  who  gave  them  fleets,  commerce, 
arts,  and  arms ;  who,  at  Pultowa,  taught  them  to  face  and 
beat  the  previously  invincible  Swedes ;  and  who  made  stub- 
born valor  and  implicit  subordination  from  that  time  forth 
the  distinguishing  characteristics  of  the  Russian  soldiery, 
which  had  before  his  time  been  a  mere  disorderly  and  irreso- 
lute rabble. 

The  career  of  Philip  of  Macedon  resembles  most  nearly 
that  of  the  great  Muscovite  czar ;  but  there  is  this  important 
difference,  that  Philip  had,  while  young,  received  in  Southern 
Greece  the  best  education  in  all  matters  of  peace  and  war 
that  the  ablest  philosophers  and  generals  of  the  age  could 
bestow.  Peter  was  brought  up  among  barbarians  and  in 
barbaric  ignorance.  He  strove  to  remedy  this  when  a  grown 
man,  by  leaving  all  the  temptations  to  idleness  and  sensuality 
which  his  court  offered  and  by  seeking  instruction  abroad. 
He  labored  with  his  own  hands  as  a  common  artisan  in 
Holland  and  in  England,  that  he  might  return  and  teach  his 
subjects  how  ships,  commerce,  and  civilization  could  be 
acquired.  There  is  a  degree  of  heroism  here  superior  to 
anything  that  we  know  of  in  the  Macedonian  king.  But 
Philip's  consolidation  of  the  long  disunited  Macedonian 
empire ;  his  raising  a  people  which  he  found  the  scorn  of 
their  civilized  southern  neighbors  to  be  their  dread;  his 
organization  of  a  brave  and  well-disciplined  army,  instead  of 
a  disorderly  militia ;  his  creation  of  a  maritime  force,  and  his 
systematic  skill  in  acquiring  and  improving  seaports  and 
arsenals  ;  his  patient  tenacity  of  purpose  under  reverses ;  his 
personal  bravery,  and  even  his  proneness  to  coarse  amuse- 
ments and  pleasures  —  all  mark  him  out  as  the  prototype  of 
the  imperial  founder  of  the  Russian  power.  In  justice,  how- 
ever, to  the  ancient  hero,  it  ought  to  be  added  that  we  find  in 
the  history  of  Philip  no  examples  of  that  savage  cruelty  which 
deforms  so  grievously  the  character  of  Peter  the  Great. 

In  considering  the  effects  of  the  overthrow  which  the 
Swedish  arms  sustained  at  Pultowa,  and  in  speculating  on 
the  probable  consequences  that  would  have  followed  if  the 
invaders  had  been  successful,  we  must  not  only  bear  in  mind 


1709]  BATTLE   OF   PULTOWA  305 

the  wretched  state  in  which  Peter  found  Russia  at  his  acces- 
sion, compared  with  her  present  grandeur,  but  we  must  also 
keep  in  view  the  fact  that,  at  the  time  when  Pultowa  was 
fought,  his  reforms  were  yet  incomplete  and  his  new  institu- 
tions immature.  He  had  broken  up  the  old  Russia ;  and  the 
new  Russia,  which  he  ultimately  created,  was  still  in  embryo. 
Had  he  been  crushed  at  Pultowa,  his  mighty  schemes  would 
have  been  buried  with  him  ;  and  (to  use  the  words  of  Voltaire) 
"  the  most  extensive  empire  in  the  world  would  have  relapsed 
into  the  chaos  from  which  it  had  been  so  lately  taken."  It 
is  this  fact  that  makes  the  repulse  of  Charles  XII.  the  critical 
point  in  the  fortunes  of  Russia.  The  danger  which  she  in- 
curred a  century  afterwards  from  her  invasion  by  Napoleon 
was  in  reality  far  less  than  her  peril  when  Charles  attacked 
her ;  though  the  French  emperor,  as  a  military  genius,  was 
infinitely  superior  to  the  Swedish  king,  and  led  a  host  against 
her  compared  with  which  the  armies  of  Charles  seem  almost 
insignificant.  But,  as  Fouche  well  warned  his  imperial 
master,  when  he  vainly  endeavored  to  dissuade  him  from  his 
disastrous  expedition  against  the  empire  of  the  czars,  the 
difference  between  the  Russia  of  18 12  and  the  Russia  of  1709 
was  greater  than  the  disparity  between  the  power  of  Charles 
and  the  might  of  Napoleon.  "  If  that  heroic  king,"  said 
Fouche,  "had  not,  like  your  imperial  majesty,  half  Europe 
in  arms  to  back  him,  neither  had  his  opponent,  the  Czar 
Peter,  400,000  soldiers  and  50,000  Cossacks."  The  historians 
who  describe  the  state  of  the  Muscovite  empire  when  revolu- 
tionary and  imperial  France  encountered  it  narrate  with  truth 
and  justice  how  "at  the  epoch  of  the  French  Revolution  this 
immense  empire,  comprehending  nearly  half  of  Europe  and 
Asia  within  its  dominions,  inhabited  by  a  patient  and  indomi- 
table race,  ever  ready  to  exchange  the  luxury  and  adventure 
of  the  south  for  the  hardships  and  monotony  of  the  north, 
was  daily  becoming  more  formidable  to  the  liberties  of 
Europe.  The  Russian  infantry  had  then  long  been  cele- 
brated for  its  immovable  firmness.  Her  immense  popula- 
tion, amounting  then  in  Europe  alone  to  nearly  thirty-five 
millions,  afforded  an  inexhaustible  supply  of  men.  Her  sol- 
diers, inured  to  heat  and  cold  from  their  infancy,  and  actuated 
by  a  blind  devotion  to  their  czar,  united  the  steady  valor  of 


306  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1709 

the  English  to  the  impetuous  energy  of  the  French  troops." 
[Alison.]  So,  also,  we  read  how  the  haughty  aggressions  of 
Bonaparte  "  went  to  excite  a  national  feeling,  from  the  banks 
of  the  Borysthenes  to  the  wall  of  China,  and  to  unite  against 
him  the  wild  and  uncivilized  inhabitants  of  an  extended 
empire,  possessed  by  a  love  to  their  religion,  their  govern- 
ment, and  their  country,  and  having  a  character  of  stern 
devotion,  which  he  was  incapable  of  estimating."  But  the 
Russia  of  1709  had  no  such  forces  to  oppose  an  assailant. 
Her  whole  population  then  was  below  sixteen  millions ;  and, 
what  is  far  more  important,  this  population  had  acquired 
neither  military  spirit  nor  strong  nationality ;  nor  was  it 
united  in  loyal  attachment  to  its  ruler. 

Peter  had  wisely  abolished  the  old  regular  troops  of  the 
empire,  the  Strelitzes ;  but  the  forces  which  he  had  raised  in 
their  stead  on  a  new  and  foreign  plan,  and  principally  officered 
with  foreigners,  had,  before  the  Swedish  invasion,  given  no 
proof  that  they  could  be  relied  on.  In  numerous  encounters 
with  the  Swedes,  Peter's  soldiery  had  run  like  sheep  before 
inferior  numbers.  Great  discontent,  also,  had  been  excited 
among  all  classes  of  the  community  by  the  arbitrary  changes 
which  their  great  emperor  introduced,  many  of  which  clashed 
with  the  most  cherished  national  prejudices  of  his  sub- 
jects. A  career  of  victory  and  prosperity  had  not  yet 
raised  Peter  above  the  reach  of  that  disaffection,  nor  had 
superstitious  obedience  to  the  czar  yet  become  the  character- 
istic of  the  Muscovite  mind.  The  victorious  occupation  of 
Moscow  by  Charles  XII.  would  have  quelled  the  Russian 
nation  as  effectually  as  had  been  the  case  when  Batou  Khan, 
and  other  ancient  invaders,  captured  the  capital  of  primitive 
Muscovy.  How  little  such  a  triumph  could  effect  towards 
subduing  modern  Russia,  the  fate  of  Napoleon  demonstrated 
at  once  and  forever. 

The  character  of  Charles  XII.  has  been  a  favorite  theme 
with  historians,  moralists,  philosophers,  and  poets.  But  it 
is  his  military  conduct  during  the  campaign  in  Russia  that 
alone  requires  comment  here.  Napoleon,  in  the  memoirs  dic- 
tated by  him  at  St.  Helena,  has  given  us  a  systematic  criti- 
cism on  that,  among  other  celebrated  campaigns,  his  own 
Russian  campaign  included.     He  labors  hard  to  prove  that 


PETER  THE  GREAT. 

Photogravure  from  an  engraving  after  a  painting  by  Kneller. 


1709]  BATTLE   OF   PULTOWA  307 

he  himself  observed  all  the  true  principles  of  offensive  war ; 
and  probably  his  censures  of  Charles's  generalship  were 
rather  highly  colored,  for  the  sake  of  making  his  own  mili- 
tary skill  stand  out  in  more  favorable  relief.  Yet,  after  mak- 
ing all  allowances,  we  must  admit  the  force  of  Napoleon's 
strictures  on  Charles's  tactics,  and  own  that  his  judgment, 
though  severe,  is  correct,  when  he  pronounces  that  the  Swed- 
ish king,  unlike  his  great  predecessor  Gustavus,  knew  nothing 
of  the  art  of  war,  and  was  nothing  more  than  a  brave  and 
intrepid  soldier.  Such,  however,  was  not  the  light  in  which 
Charles  was  regarded  by  his  contemporaries  at  the  commence- 
ment of  his  Russian  expedition.  His  numerous  victories,  his 
daring  and  resolute  spirit,  combined  with  the  ancient  renown 
of  fie  Swedish  arms,  then  filled  all  Europe  with  admiration 
and  anxiety.  As  Johnson  expresses  it,  his  name  was  then 
one  at  which  the  world  grew  pale.  Even  Louis  le  Grand 
earnestly  solicited  his  assistance ;  and  our  own  Marlborough, 
then  in  the  full  career  of  his  victories,  was  specially  sent  by 
the  English  court  to  the  camp  of  Charles,  to  propitiate  the 
hero  of  the  North  in  favor  of  the  cause  of  the  Allies,  and  to 
prevent  the  Swedish  sword  from  being  flung  into  the  scale  in 
the  French  king's  favor.  But  Charles  at  that  time  was  solely 
bent  on  dethroning  the  sovereign  of  Russia,  as  he  had 
already  dethroned  the  sovereign  of  Poland,  and  all  Europe 
fully  believed  that  he  would  entirely  crush  the  czar,  and  dic- 
tate conditions  of  peace  in  the  Kremlin.3  Charles  himself 
looked  on  success  as  a  matter  of  certainty ;  and  the  romantic 
extravagance  of  his  views  was  continually  increasing.  "  One 
year,  he  thought,  would  suffice  for  the  conquest  of  Russia. 
The  court  of  Rome  was  next  to  feel  his  vengeance,  as  the 
pope  had  dared  to  oppose  the  concession  of  religious  liberty  to 
the  Silesian  Protestants.  No  enterprise  at  that  time  appeared 
impossible  to  him.  He  had  even  despatched  several  officers 
privately  into  Asia  and  Egypt  to  take  plans  of  the  towns  and 
examine  into  the  strength  and  resources  of  those  countries." 
[Crighton.] 

Napoleon  thus  epitomizes  the  earlier  operations  of  Charles's 
invasion  of  Russia:  — 

"  That  prince  set  out  from  his  camp  at  Aldstadt,  near  Leip- 
sic,  in  September,  1707,  at  the  head  of  45,000  men,  and  trav- 


308  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1709 

ersed  Poland ;  20,000  men,  under  Count  Lewenhaupt,  dis- 
embarked at  Riga,  and  15,000  were  in  Finland.  He  was 
therefore  in  a  condition  to  have  brought  together  80,000  of 
the  best  troops  in  the  world.  He  left  10,000  men  at  Warsaw 
to  guard  King  Stanislaus,  and  in  January,  1708,  arrived  at 
Grodno,  where  he  wintered.  In  June,  he  crossed  the  forest  of 
Minsk,  and  presented  himself  before  Borisov;  forced  the 
Russian  army  which  occupied  the  left  bank  of  the  Beresina ; 
defeated  20,000  Russians  who  were  strongly  entrenched 
behind  marshes;  passed  the  Borysthenes  at  Mohiloev,  and 
vanquished  a  corps  of  16,000  Muscovites  near  Smolensko,  on 
the  22d  of  September.  He  was  now  advanced  to  the  confines 
of  Lithuania,  and  was  about  to  enter  Russia  proper.  The 
czar,  alarmed  at  his  approach,  made  him  proposals  of  peace. 
Up  to  this  time  all  his  movements  were  conformable  to  rule, 
and  his  communications  were  well  secured.  He  was  master 
of  Poland  and  Riga,  and  only  ten  days'  march  distant  from 
Moscow ;  and  it  is  probable  that  he  would  have  reached  that 
capital,  had  he  not  quitted  the  highroad  thither  and  directed 
his  steps  towards  the  Ukraine,  in  order  to  form  a  junction 
with  Mazeppa,  who  brought  him  only  6000  men.  By  this 
movement  his  line  of  operations,  beginning  at  Sweden, 
exposed  his  flank  to  Russia  for  a  distance  of  four  hundred 
leagues,  and  he  was  unable  to  protect  it,  or  to  receive  either 
reenforcement  or  assistance." 

Napoleon  severely  censures  this  neglect  of  one  of  the  great 
rules  of  war.  He  points  out  that  Charles  had  not  organized 
his  war  like  Hannibal,  on  the  principle  of  relinquishing  all 
communications  with  home,  keeping  all  his  forces  concen- 
trated, and  creating  a  base  of  operations  in  the  conquered 
country.  Such  had  been  the  bold  system  of  the  Carthaginian 
general ;  but  Charles  acted  on  no  such  principle,  inasmuch  as 
he  caused  Lewenhaupt,  one  of  his  generals,  who  commanded 
a  considerable  detachment  and  escorted  a  most  important 
convoy,  to  follow  him  at  a  distance  of  twelve  days'  march. 
By  this  dislocation  of  his  forces  he  exposed  Lewenhaupt  to 
be  overwhelmed  separately  by  the  full  force  of  the  enemy, 
and  deprived  the  troops  under  his  own  command  of  the  aid 
which  that  general's  men  and  stores  might  have  afforded  at 
the  very  crisis  of  the  campaign. 


1709]  BATTLE   OF   PULTOWA  309 

The  czar  had  collected  an  army  of  about  a  hundred  thousand 
effective  men;  and  though  the  Swedes  in  the  beginning  of  the 
invasion  were  successful  in  every  encounter,  the  Russian  troops 
were  gradually  acquiring  discipline ;  and  Peter  and  his  officers 
were  learning  generalship  from  their  victors,  as  the  Thebans 
of  old  learned  it  from  the  Spartans.  When  Lewenhaupt,  in  the 
October  of  1708,  was  striving  to  join  Charles  in  the  Ukraine, 
the  czar  suddenly  attacked  him  near  the  Borysthenes  with  an 
overwhelming  force  of  fifty  thousand  Russians.  Lewenhaupt 
fought  bravely  for  three  days,  and  succeeded  in  cutting  his 
way  through  the  enemy,  with  about  four  thousand  of  his 
men,  to  where  Charles  awaited  him  near  the  river  Desna; 
but  upwards  of  eight  thousand  Swedes  fell  in  these  battles ; 
Lewenhaupt's  cannon  and  ammunition  were  abandoned,  and 
the  whole  of  his  important  convoy  of  provisions,  on  which 
Charles  and  his  half-starved  troops  were  relying,  fell  into  the 
enemy's  hands.  Charles  was  compelled  to  remain  in  the 
Ukraine  during  the  winter;  but  in  the  spring  of  1709  he 
moved  forward  towards  Moscow,  and  invested  the  fortified 
town  of  Pultowa,  on  the  river  Vorskla,  a  place  where  the  czar 
had  stored  up  large  supplies  of  provisions  and  military  stores, 
and  which  commanded  the  roads  leading  towards  Moscow. 
The  possession  of  this  place  would  have  given  Charles  the 
means  of  supplying  all  the  wants  of  his  suffering  army,  and 
would  also  have  furnished  him  with  a  secure  base  of  opera- 
tions for  his  advance  against  the  Muscovite  capital.  The 
siege  was  therefore  hotly  pressed  by  the  Swedes;  the  garrison 
resisted  obstinately ;  and  the  czar,  feeling  the  importance  of 
saving  the  town,  advanced  in  June  to  its  relief,  at  the  head  of 
an  army  from  fifty  to  sixty  thousand  strong. 

Both  sovereigns  now  prepared  for  the  general  action  which 
each  perceived  to  be  inevitable,  and  which  each  felt  would  be 
decisive  of  his  own  and  of  his  country's  destiny.  The  czar, 
by  some  masterly  maneuvers,  crossed  the  Vorskla,  and  posted 
his  army  on  the  same  side  of  that  river  with  the  besiegers, 
but  a  little  higher  up.  The  Vorskla  falls  into  the  Borysthenes 
about  fifteen  leagues  below  Pultowa,  and  the  czar  arranged 
his  forces  in  two  lines,  stretching  from  one  river  towards  the 
other ;  so  that  if  the  Swedes  attacked  him  and  were  repulsed, 
they  would  be  driven  backwards  into  the  acute  angle  formed 


3IO  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1709 

by  the  two  streams  at  their  junction.  He  fortified  these  lines 
with  several  redoubts,  lined  with  heavy  artillery;  and  his  troops, 
both  horse  and  foot,  were  in  the  best  possible  condition,  and 
amply  provided  with  stores  and  ammunition.  Charles's  forces 
were  about  twenty-four  thousand  strong.  But  not  more  than 
half  of  these  were  Swedes ;  so  much  had  battle,  famine,  fatigue, 
and  the  deadly  frosts  of  Russia  thinned  the  gallant  bands 
which  the  Swedish  king  and  Lewenhaupt  had  led  to  the 
Ukraine.  The  other  twelve  thousand  men  under  Charles 
were  Cossacks  and  Wallachians,  who  had  joined  him  in  that 
country.  On  hearing  that  the  czar  was  about  to  attack  him, 
he  deemed  that  his  dignity  required  that  he  himself  should 
be  the  assailant;  and,  leading  his  army  out  of  their  entrenched 
lines  before  the  town,  he  advanced  with  them  against  the 
Russian  redoubts. 

He  had  been  severely  wounded  in  the  foot  in  a  skirmish  a 
few  days  before,  and  was  borne  in  a  litter  along  the  ranks, 
into  the  thick  of  the  fight.  Notwithstanding  the  fearful  dis- 
parity of  numbers  and  disadvantage  of  position,  the  Swedes 
never  showed  their  ancient  valor  more  nobly  than  on  that 
dreadful  day.  Nor  do  their  Cossack  and  Wallachian  allies 
seem  to  have  been  unworthy  of  fighting  side  by  side  with 
Charles's  veterans.  Two  of  the  Russian  redoubts  were  actu- 
ally entered,  and  the  Swedish  infantry  began  to  raise  the  cry 
of  victory.  But  on  the  other  side,  neither  general  nor  soldiers 
flinched  in  their  duty.  The  Russian  cannonade  and  mus- 
ketry were  kept  up ;  fresh  masses  of  defenders  were  poured 
into  the  fortifications,  and  at  length  the  exhausted  remnants 
of  the  Swedish  columns  recoiled  from  the  blood-stained 
redoubts.  Then  the  czar  led  the  infantry  and  cavalry  of  his 
first  line  outside  the  works,  drew  them  up  steadily  and  skil- 
fully, and  the  action  was  renewed  along  the  whole  fronts  of 
the  two  armies  on  the  open  ground.  Each  sovereign  exposed 
his  life  freely  in  the  world-winning  battle ;  and  on  each  side 
the  troops  fought  obstinately  and  eagerly  under  their  ruler's 
eye.  It  was  not  till  two  hours  from  the  commencement  of 
the  action  that,  overpowered  by  numbers,  the  hitherto  invin- 
cible Swedes  gave  way.  All  was  then  hopeless  disorder  and 
irreparable  rout.  Driven  downward  to  where  the  rivers  join, 
the  fugitive  Swedes  surrendered  to  their  victorious  pursuers, 


1709]  BATTLE    OF   PULTOWA  311 

or  perished  in  the  waters  of  the  Borysthenes.  Only  a  few 
hundreds  swam  that  river  with  their  king  and  the  Cossack 
Mazeppa,  and  escaped  into  the  Turkish  territory.  Nearly 
ten  thousand  lay  killed  and  wounded  in  the  redoubts  and  on 
the  field  of  battle. 

In  the  joy  of  his  heart  the  czar  exclaimed,  when  the  strife 
was  over,  "  that  the  son  of  the  morning  had  fallen  from 
heaven ;  and  that  the  foundations  of  St.  Petersburg  at  length 
stood  firm."  Even  on  that  battle-field,  near  the  Ukraine,  the 
Russian  emperor's  first  thoughts  were  of  conquests  and  ag- 
grandizement of  the  Baltic.  The  peace  of  Nystadt,  which 
transferred  the  fairest  provinces  of  Sweden  to  Russia,  ratified 
the  judgment  of  battle  which  was  pronounced  at  Pultowa. 
Attacks  on  Turkey  and  Persia  by  Russia  commenced  almost 
directly  after  that  victory.  And  though  the  czar  failed  in  his 
first  attempts  against  the  sultan,  the  successors  of  Peter  have, 
one  and  all,  carried  on  a  uniformly  aggressive  and  uniformly 
successful  system  of  policy  against  Turkey,  and  against  every 
other  state,  Asiatic  as  well  as  European,  which  has  had  the 
misfortune  of  having  Russia  for  a  neighbor. 

Orators  and  authors  who  have  discussed  the  progress  of 
Russia  have  often  alluded  to  the  similitude  between  the 
modern  extension  of  the  Muscovite  empire  and  the  extension 
of  the  Roman  dominions  in  ancient  times.  But  attention  has 
scarcely  been  drawn  to  the  closeness  of  the  parallel  between 
conquering  Russia  and  conquering  Rome,  not  only  in  the 
extent  of  conquests,  but  in  the  means  of  effecting  conquest. 
The  history  of  Rome  during  the  century  and  a  half  which 
followed  the  close  of  the  second  Punic  war,  and  during  which 
her  largest  acquisitions  of  territory  were  made,  should  be 
minutely  compared  with  the  history  of  Russia  for  the  last  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years.  The  main  points  of  similitude  can 
only  be  indicated  in  these  pages ;  but  they  deserve  the  fullest 
consideration.  Above  all,  the  sixth  chapter  of  Montesquieu's 
great  treatise  on  Rome,  the  chapter  "De  la  conduit  e  que  les 
Romains  tinrent  pour  soumettre  les  peuplcs,"  should  be  care- 
fully studied  by  every  one  who  watches  the  career  and  policy 
of  Russia.  The  classic  scholar  will  remember  the  statecraft 
of  the  Roman  senate,  which  took  care  in  every  foreign  war 
to  appear  in  the  character  of  a  Protector.     Thus  Rome  pro- 


312  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1709 

tected  the  ^Etolians  and  the  Greek  cities  against  Macedon ; 
she  protected  Bithynia  and  other  small  Asiatic  states  against 
the  Syrian  kings ;  she  protected  Numidia  against  Carthage ; 
and  in  numerous  other  instances  assumed  the  same  specious 
character.  But  "woe  to  the  people  whose  liberty  depends 
on  the  continued  forbearance  of  an  over-mighty  protector." 
Every  state  which  Rome  protected  was  ultimately  subjugated 
and  absorbed  by  her.  And  Russia  has  been  the  protector  of 
Poland,  the  protector  of  the  Crimea,  the  protector  of  Cour- 
land,  the  protector  of  Georgia,  Immeritia,  Mingrelia,  the 
Tcherkessian  and  Caucasian  tribes.  She  has  first  protected 
and  then  appropriated  them  all.  She  protects  Moldavia  and 
Wallachia.  A  few  years  ago  she  became  the  protector  of 
Turkey  from  Mehemet  AH;  and  since  the  summer  of  1849 
she  has  made  herself  the  protector  of  Austria. 

When  the  partisans  of  Russia  speak  of  the  disinterestedness 
with  which  she  withdrew  her  protecting  troops  from  Constan- 
tinople and  from  Hungary,  let  us  here  also  mark  the  ominous 
exactness  of  the  parallel  between  her  and  Rome.  While  the 
ancient  world  yet  contained  a  number  of  independent  states, 
which  might  have  made  a  formidable  league  against  Rome  if 
she  had  alarmed  them  by  openly  avowing  her  ambitious 
schemes,  Rome's  favorite  policy  was  seeming  disinterested- 
ness and  moderation.  After  her  first  war  against  Philip,  after 
that  against  Antiochus,  and  many  others,  victorious  Rome 
promptly  withdrew  her  troops  from  the  territories  which  they 
occupied.  She  affected  to  employ  her  arms  only  for  the  good 
of  others ;  but,  when  the  favorable  moment  came,  she  always 
found  a  pretext  for  marching  her  legions  back  into  each  cov- 
eted district  and  making  it  a  Roman  province.  Fear,  not 
moderation,  is  the  only  effective  check  on  the  ambition  of 
such  powers  as  ancient  Rome  and  modern  Russia.  The 
amount  of  that  fear  depends  on  the  amount  of  timely  vigilance 
and  energy  which  other  states  choose  to  employ  against  the 
common  enemy  of  their  freedom  and  national  independence. 

Notes 

1  The  Hussite  wars  may,  perhaps,  entitle  Bohemia  to  be  distinguished. 

2  "The  idea  of  Panslavism  had  a  purely  literary  origin.  It  was  started 
by  Kollar,  a  Protestant  clergyman  of  the  Sclavonic  congregation  at  Pesth, 
in  Hungary,  who  wished  to  establish  a  national  literature  by  circulating  all 


1709]  BATTLE   OF   PULTOWA  313 

works  written  in  the  various  Sclavonic  dialects  through  every  country  where 
any  of  them  are  spoken.  He  suggested  that  all  the  Sclavonic  literati  should 
become  acquainted  with  the  sister  dialects,  so  that  a  Bohemian  or  other 
work  might  be  read  on  the  shores  of  the  Adriatic  as  well  as  on  the  banks 
of  the  Volga,  or  any  other  place  where  a  Sclavonic  language  was  spoken  ; 
by  which  means  an  extensive  literature  might  be  created,  tending  to  advance 
knowledge  in  all  Sclavonic  countries ;  and  he  supported  his  arguments  by 
observing  that  the  dialects  of  ancient  Greece  differed  from  each  other,  like 
those  of  his  own  language,  and  yet  that  they  formed  only  one  Hellenic 
literature.  The  idea  of  an  intellectual  union  of  all  those  nations  naturally 
led  to  that  of  a  political  one  ;  and  the  Sclavonians,  seeing  that  their  numbers 
amounted  to  about  one  third  part  of  the  whole  population  of  Europe  and 
occupied  more  than  half  its  territory,  began  to  be  sensible  that  they  might 
claim  for  themselves  a  position  to  which  they  had  not  hitherto  aspired. 

"  The  opinion  gained  ground ;  and  the  question  now  is,  whether  the 
Sclavonians  can  form  a  nation  independent  of  Russia;  or  whether  they 
ought  to  rest  satisfied  in  being  part  of  one  great  race,  with  the  most  powerful 
member  of  it  as  their  chief.  The  latter,  indeed,  is  gaining  ground  among 
them ;  and  some  Poles  are  disposed  to  attribute  their  sufferings  to  the 
arbitrary  will  of  the  czar,  without  extending  the  blame  to  the  Russians 
themselves.  These  begin  to  think  that  if  they  cannot  exist  as  Poles,  the 
best  thing  to  be  done  is  to  rest  satisfied  with  a  position  in  the  Sclavonic 
empire ;  and  they  hope  that,  when  once  they  give  up  the  idea  of  restoring 
their  country,  Russia  may  grant  some  concessions  to  their  separate  nation- 
ality. 

"  The  same  idea  has  been  put  forward  by  writers  in  the  Russian  interest ; 
great  efforts  are  making  among  other  Sclavonic  people  to  induce  them  to 
look  upon  Russia  as  their  future  head ;  and  she  has  already  gained  con- 
siderable influence  over  the  Sclavonic  populations  of  Turkey."  —  Wilkin- 
son's Dalmatia. 

8  Voltaire  attests,  from  personal  inspection  of  the  letters  of  several  public 
ministers  to  their  respective  courts,  that  such  was  the  general  expectation. 

Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Battle  of  Pultowa, 
1709,  and   the  Defeat  of  Burgoyne  at  Saratoga,   1777 

17 1 3.  Treaty  of  Utrecht.  Philip  is  left  by  it  in  posses- 
sion of  the  throne  of  Spain.  But  Naples,  Milan,  the  Spanish 
territories  on  the  Tuscan  coast,  the  Spanish  Netherlands,  and 
some  parts  of  the  French  Netherlands  are  given  to  Austria. 
France  cedes  to  England  Hudson's  Bay  and  Straits,  the  island 
of  St.  Christopher,  Nova  Scotia,  and  Newfoundland  in 
America.  Spain  cedes  to  England  Gibraltar  and  Minorca, 
which  the  English  had  taken  during  the  war.  The  king  of 
Prussia  and  the  Duke  of  Savoy  both  obtain  considerable 
additions  of  territory  to  their  dominions. 


314  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1709 

1 7 14.  Death  of  Queen  Anne.  The  house  of  Hanover  be- 
gins to  reign  in  England.  A  rebellion  in  favor  of  the  Stuarts 
is  put  down.     Death  of  Louis  XIV. 

1 7 18.    Charles  XII.  killed  at  the  siege  of  Frederickshall. 

1725.    Death  of  Peter  the  Great  of  Russia. 

1740.  Frederick  II.,  king  of  Prussia,  begins  his  reign.  He 
attacks  the  Austrian  dominions,  and  conquers  Silesia. 

1742.  War  between  France  and  England. 

1743.  Victory  of  the  English  at  Dettingen. 

1745.  Victory  of  the  French  at  Fontenoy.  Rebellion  in 
Scotland  in  favor  of  the  house  of  Stuart ;  finally  quelled  by 
the  battle  of  Culloden  in  the  next  year. 

1748.    Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle. 

1756  to  1763.  The  Seven  Years'  war,  during  which  Prussia 
makes  an  heroic  resistance  against  the  armies  of  Austria, 
Russia,  and  France.  England,  under  the  administration  of 
the  elder  Pitt  (afterwards  Lord  Chatham),  takes  a  glorious 
part  in  the  war  in  opposition  to  France  and  Spain.  Wolfe 
wins  the  battle  of  Quebec,  and  the  English  conquer  Canada, 
Cape  Breton,  and  St.  John.  Clive  begins  his  career  of  con- 
quest in  India.     Cuba  is  taken  by  the  English  from  Spain. 

1763.  Treaty  of  Paris,  which  leaves  the  power  of  Prussia 
increased  and  its  military  reputation  greatly  exalted. 

"  France,  by  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  ceded  to  England  Canada 
and  the  island  of  Cape  Breton,  with  the  islands  and  coasts  of 
the  gulf  and  river  of  St.  Lawrence.  The  boundaries  between 
the  two  nations  in  North  America  were  fixed  by  a  line  drawn 
along  the  middle  of  the  Mississippi,  from  its  source  to  its 
mouth.  All  on  the  left  or  eastern  bank  of  that  river  was 
given  up  to  England,  except  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  which 
was  reserved  to  France ;  as  was  also  the  liberty  of  the  fish- 
eries on  a  part  of  the  coasts  of  Newfoundland  and  the  Gulf 
of  St.  Lawrence.  The  islands  of  St.  Peter  and  Miquelon 
were  given  them  as  a  shelter  for  their  fishermen,  but  without 
permission  to  raise  fortifications.  The  islands  of  Martinique, 
Guadeloupe,  Marie  Galante,  Desirade,  and  St.  Lucia  were 
surrendered  to  France ;  while  Grenada,  the  Grenadines,  St. 
Vincent,  Dominica,  and  Tobago  were  ceded  to  England.  This 
latter  power  retained  her  conquests  on  the  Senegal,  and  re- 
stored to  France  the  island  of  Goree,  on  the  coast  of  Africa. 


1709]  BATTLE   OF   PULTOWA  3*5 

France  was  put  in  possession  of  the  forts  and  factories  which 
belonged  to  her  in  the  East  Indies,  on  the  coasts  of  Coroman- 
del,  Orissa,  Malabar,  and  Bengal,  under  the  restriction  of 
keeping  up  no  military  force  in  Bengal. 

"  In  Europe,  France  restored  all  the  conquests  she  had 
made  in  Germany,  as  also  the  island  of  Minorca.  England 
gave  up  to  her  Belleisle,  on  the  coast  of  Brittany ;  while 
Dunkirk  was  kept  in  the  same  condition  as  had  been  deter- 
mined by  the  peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle.  The  island  of  Cuba, 
with  the  Havana,  was  restored  to  the  king  of  Spain,  who, 
on  his  part,  ceded  to  England  Florida,  with  Port  Augustine 
and  the  Bay  of  Pensacola.  The  king  of  Portugal  was  re- 
stored to  the  same  state  in  which  he  had  been  before  the  war. 
The  colony  of  St.  Sacrament  in  America,  which  the  Spaniards 
had  conquered,  was  given  back  to  him. 

"  The  peace  of  Paris,  of  which  we  have  just  now  spoken, 
was  the  era  of  England's  greatest  prosperity.  Her  commerce 
and  navigation  extended  over  all  parts  of  the  globe,  and  were 
supported  by  a  naval  force  so  much  the  more  imposing,  as 
it  was  no  longer  counterbalanced  by  the  maritime  power  of 
France,  which  had  been  almost  annihilated  in  the  preceding 
war.  The  immense  territories  which  that  peace  had  secured 
her,  both  in  Africa  and  America,  opened  up  new  channels 
for  her  industry  :  and  what  deserves  specially  to  be  remarked 
is  that  she  acquired  at  the  same  time  vast  and  important 
possessions  in  the  East  Indies."     [Koch.] 


316  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1777 


CHAPTER   XIII 

Victory  of  the  Americans  over  Burgoyne  at  Saratoga,   1777 

"  Westward  the  course  of  empire  takes  its  way ; 
The  first  four  acts  already  past, 
A  fifth  shall  close  the  drama  with  the  day : 
Time's  noblest  offspring  is  its  last." 

—  Bishop  Berkeley. 

"Even  of  those  great  conflicts  in  which  hundreds  of  thousands  have 
been  engaged  and  tens  of  thousands  have  fallen,  none  has  been  more  fruit- 
ful of  results  than  this  surrender  of  thirty-five  hundred  fighting  men  at 
Saratoga.  It  not  merely  changed  the  relations  of  England  and  the  feelings 
of  Europe  towards  these  insurgent  colonies,  but  it  has  modified,  for  all  time 
to  come,  the  connection  between  every  colony  and  every  parent  state."  — 
Lord  Mahon. 

OF  the  four  great  powers  that  now  principally  rule  the 
political  destinies  of  the  world,  France  and  England 
are  the  only  two  whose  influence  can  be  dated  back 
beyond  the  last  century  and  a  half.  The  third  great  power, 
Russia,  was  a  feeble  mass  of  barbarism  before  the  epoch  of 
Peter  the  Great ;  and  the  very  existence  of  the  fourth  great 
power,  as  an  independent  nation,  commenced  within  the 
memory  of  living  men.  By  the  fourth  great  power  of  the 
world  I  mean  the  mighty  commonwealth  of  the  Western  con- 
tinent, which  now  commands  the  admiration  of  mankind. 
That  homage  is  sometimes  reluctantly  given,  and  accompa- 
nied with  suspicion  and  ill  will.  But  none  can  refuse  it.  All 
the  physical  essentials  for  national  strength  are  undeniably 
to  be  found  in  the  geographical  position  and  amplitude  of 
territory  which  the  United  States  possess:  in  their  almost 
inexhaustible  tracts  of  fertile  but  hitherto  untouched  soil ;  in 
their  stately  forests,  in  their  mountain  chains  and  their  rivers, 
their  beds  of  coal,  and  stores  of  metallic  wealth ;  in  their  ex- 
tensive seaboard  along  the  waters  of  two  oceans,  and  in  their 


1777]  BATTLE   OF   SARATOGA  317 

already  numerous  and  rapidly  increasing  population.  And 
when  we  examine  the  character  of  this  population,  no  one 
can  look  on  the  fearless  energy,  the  sturdy  determination, 
the  aptitude  for  local  self-government,  the  versatile  alacrity, 
and  the  unresting  spirit  of  enterprise  which  characterize  the 
Anglo-Americans  without  feeling  that  he  here  beholds  the 
true  moral  elements  of  progressive  might- 
Three  quarters  of  a  century  have  not  yet  passed  away  since 
the  United  States  ceased  to  be  mere  dependencies  of  Eng- 
land. And  even  if  we  date  their  origin  from  the  period  when 
the  first  permanent  European  settlements,  out  of  which  they 
grew,  were  made  on  the  western  coast  of  the  North  Atlantic, 
the  increase  of  their  strength  is  unparalleled,  either  in  rapidity 
or  extent. 

The  ancient  Roman  boasted,  with  reason,  of  the  growth  of 
Rome  from  humble  beginnings  to  the  greatest  magnitude 
which  the  world  had  then  ever  witnessed.  But  the  citizen  of 
the  United  States  is  still  more  justly  entitled  to  claim  this 
praise.  In  two  centuries  and  a  half  his  country  has  acquired 
ampler  dominion  than  the  Roman  gained  in  ten.  And,  even 
if  we  credit  the  legend  of  the  band  of  shepherds  and  outlaws 
with  which  Romulus  is  said  to  have  colonized  the  Seven  Hills, 
we  find  not  there  so  small  a  germ  of  future  greatness  as  we 
find  in  the  group  of  a  hundred  and  five  ill-chosen  and  disunited 
emigrants  who  founded  Jamestown  in  1607,  or  in  the  scanty 
band  of  Pilgrim  Fathers  who,  a  few  years  later,  moored  their 
bark  on  the  wild  and  rock-bound  coast  of  the  wilderness  that 
was  to  become  New  England.  The  power  of  the  United 
States  is  emphatically  the  "  Imperium  quo  neque  ab  exordio 
ullum  fere  minus,  neque  incrementis  toto  orbe  amplius  humana 
potest  memoria  recordari."     [Eutropius.] 

Nothing  is  more  calculated  to  impress  the  mind  with  a  sense 
of  the  rapidity  with  which  the  resources  of  the  American 
republic  advance  than  the  difficulty  which  the  historical 
inquirer  finds  in  ascertaining  their  precise  amount.  If  he 
consults  the  most  recent  works,  and  those  written  by  the 
ablest  investigators  of  the  subject,  he  finds  in  them  admiring 
comments  on  the  change  which  the  last  few  years,  before 
those  books  were  written,  had  made  ;  but  when  he  turns  to 
apply  the  estimates  in  those  books  to  the  present  moment,  he 


318  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1777 

finds  them  wholly  inadequate.  Before  a  book  on  the  subject 
of  the  United  States  has  lost  its  novelty,  those  states  have 
outgrown  the  description  which  it  contains.  The  celebrated 
work  of  the  French  statesman  De  Tocqueville  appeared  about 
fifteen  years  ago.  In  the  passage  which  I  am  about  to  quote, 
it  will  be  seen  that  he  predicts  the  constant  increase  of  the 
Anglo-American  power,  but  he  looks  on  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains as  their  extreme  western  limit  for  many  years  to  come. 
He  had  evidently  no  expectation  of  himself  seeing  that  power 
dominant  along  the  Pacific  as  well  as  along  the  Atlantic  coast. 
He  says :  — 

"  The  distance  from  Lake  Superior  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico 
extends  from  the  47th  to  the  30th  degree  of  latitude,  a  dis- 
tance of  more  than  1200  miles,  as  the  bird  flies.  The  frontier 
of  the  United  States  winds  along  the  whole  of  this  immense 
line ;  sometimes  falling  within  its  limits,  but  more  frequently 
extending  far  beyond  it  into  the  waste.  It  has  been  calculated 
that  the  Whites  advance  every  year  a  mean  distance  of  seven- 
teen miles  along  the  whole  of  this  vast  boundary.  Obstacles, 
such  as  an  unproductive  district,  a  lake,  or  an  Indian  nation 
unexpectedly  encountered,  are  sometimes  met  with.  The 
advancing  column  then  halts  for  a  while ;  its  two  extremities 
fall  back  upon  themselves,  and  as  soon  as  they  are  reunited 
they  proceed  onward.  This  gradual  and  continuous  progress 
of  the  European  race  towards  the  Rocky  Mountains  has  the 
solemnity  of  a  Providential  event :  it  is  like  a  deluge  of  men 
rising  unabatedly,  and  daily  driven  onward  by  the  hand  of 
God. 

"Within  this  first  line  of  conquering  settlers  towns  are 
built  and  vast  estates  founded.  In  1790  there  were  only  a 
few  thousand  pioneers  sprinkled  along  the  valleys  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi ;  and  at  the  present  day  these  valleys  contain  as  many 
inhabitants  as  were  to  be  found  in  the  whole  Union  in  179°- 
Their  population  amounts  to  nearly  four  millions.  The  city 
of  Washington  was  founded  in  1800,  in  the  very  center  of  the 
Union ;  but  such  are  the  changes  which  have  taken  place, 
that  it  now  stands  at  one  of  the  extremities ;  and  the  dele- 
gates of  the  most  remote  Western  states  are  already  obliged 
to  perform  a  journey  as  long  as  that  from  Vienna  to  Paris. 

"  It  must  not,  then,  be  imagined  that  the  impulse  of  the 


1777]  BATTLE   OF   SARATOGA  319 

British  race  in  the  New  World  can  be  arrested.  The  dis- 
memberment of  the  Union,  and  the  hostilities  which  might 
ensue ;  the  abolition  of  republican  institutions,  and  the  tyran- 
nical government  which  might  succeed  it,  may  retard  this 
impulse,  but  they  cannot  prevent  it  from  ultimately  fulfilling 
the  destinies  to  which  that  race  is  reserved.  No  power  upon 
earth  can  close  upon  the  emigrants  that  fertile  wilderness, 
which  offers  resources  to  all  industry  and  a  refuge  from  all 
want.  Future  events,  of  whatever  nature  they  may  be,  will 
not  deprive  the  Americans  of  their  climate  or  of  their 
inland  seas,  or  of  their  great  rivers,  or  of  their  exuberant 
soil.  Nor  will  bad  laws,  revolutions,  and  anarchy  be  able 
to  obliterate  that  love  of  prosperity  and  that  spirit  of  enter- 
prise which  seem  to  be  the  distinctive  characteristics  of  their 
race,  or  to  extinguish  that  knowledge  which  guides  them  on 
their  way. 

"  Thus,  in  the  midst  of  the  uncertain  future,  one  event  at 
least  is  sure.  At  a  period  which  may  be  said  to  be  near  (for 
we  are  speaking  of  the  life  of  a  nation),  the  Anglo-Americans 
will  alone  cover  the  immense  space  contained  between  the 
polar  regions  and  the  tropics,  extending  from  the  coast  of  the 
Atlantic  to  the  shores  of  the  Pacific  Ocean  ;  the  territory 
which  will  probably  be  occupied  by  the  Anglo-Americans  at 
some  future  time  may  be  computed  to  equal  three  quarters  of 
Europe  in  extent.  The  climate  of  the  Union  is,  upon  the 
whole,  preferable  to  that  of  Europe,  and  its  natural  advan- 
tages are  not  less  great ;  it  is  therefore  evident  that  its  popu- 
lation will  at  some  future  time  be  proportionate  to  our  own. 
Europe,  divided  as  it  is  between  so  many  different  nations, 
and  torn  as  it  has  been  by  incessant  wars  and  the  barbarous 
manners  of  the  Middle  Ages,  has  notwithstanding  attained  a 
population  of  410  inhabitants  to  the  square  league.  What 
cause  can  prevent  the  United  States  from  having  as  numerous 
a  population  in  time  ? 

"  The  time  will  therefore  come  when  one  hundred  and 
fifty  millions  of  men  will  be  living  in  North  America,  equal 
in  condition,  the  progeny  of  one  race,  owing  their  origin  to 
the  same  cause,  and  preserving  the  same  civilization,  the 
same  language,  the  same  religion,  the  same  habits,  the  same 
manners,  and  imbued  with  the  same  opinions,   propagated 


320  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1777 

under  the  same  forms.  The  rest  is  uncertain,  but  this  is  cer- 
tain ;  and  it  is  a  fact  new  to  the  world,  a  fact  fraught  with 
such  portentous  consequences  as  to  baffle  the  efforts  even  of 
the  imagination." 

Let  us  turn  from  the  French  statesman,  writing  in  1835, 
to  an  English  statesman,  who  is  justly  regarded  as  the  high- 
est authority  on  all  statistical  subjects,  and  who  described  the 
United  States  only  seven  years  ago.     Macgregor  tells  us,  — 

"The  states  which,  on  the  ratification  of  independence, 
formed  the  American  Republican  Union,  were  thirteen,  viz. :  — 

"  Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  Connecticut,  Rhode 
Island,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  Maryland,  Penn- 
sylvania, Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  and 
Georgia. 

"The  foregoing  thirteen  states  {the  whole  inhabited  terri- 
tory of  which,  with  the  exception  of  a  few  small  settlements, 
was  confined  to  the  region  extending  between  the  Alleghany 
Mountains  and  the  Atlantic)  were  those  which  existed  at  the 
period  when  they  became  an  acknowledged  separate  and  in- 
dependent federal  sovereign  power.  The  thirteen  stripes  of 
the  standard  or  flag  of  the  United  States  continue  to  rep- 
resent the  original  number.  The  stars  have  multiplied  to 
twenty-six,1  according  as  the  number  of  states  has  increased. 

"  The  territory  of  the  thirteen  original  states  of  the  Union, 
including  Maine  and  Vermont,  comprehended  a  superficies 
of  371,124  English  square  miles  ;  that  of  the  whole  United 
Kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  120,354;  tnat  of 
France,  including  Corsica,  214,910;  that  of  the  Austrian  em- 
pire, including  Hungary  and  all  the  imperial  states,  257,540 
square  miles. 

"The  present  superficies  of  the  twenty-six  constitutional 
states  of  the  Anglo-American  Union,  and  the  District  of 
Columbia  and  territories  of  Florida,  include  1,029,025  square 
miles  ;  to  which  if  we  add  the  Northwest  or  Wisconsin  terri- 
tory, east  of  the  Mississippi,  and  bounded  by  Lake  Superior 
on  the  north  and  Michigan  on  the  east,  and  occupying  at 
least  100,000  square  miles,  and  then  add  the  great  western 
region,  not  yet  well-defined  territories,  but  at  the  most  limited 
calculation  comprehending  700,000  square  miles  —  the  whole 
unbroken  in  its  vast  length  and  breadth  by  foreign  nations 


1777]  BATTLE    OF    SARATOGA  321 

—  it  comprehends  a  portion  of  the  earth's  surface  equal  to 
1,729,025  English,  or  1,296,770  geographical,  square  miles." 

We  may  add  that  the  population  of  the  states,  when  they 
declared  their  independence,  was  about  two  millions  and  a 
half ;  it  is  now  twenty-three  millions. 

I  have  quoted  Macgregor,  not  only  on  account  of  the  clear 
and  full  view  which  he  gives  of  the  progress  of  America  to 
the  date  when  he  wrote,  but  because  his  description  may  be 
contrasted  with  what  the  United  States  have  become  even 
since  his  book  appeared.  Only  three  years  after  the  time 
when  Macgregor  thus  wrote,  the  American  President  truly 
stated  :  — 

"  Within  less  than  four  years  the  annexation  of  Texas  to 
the  Union  has  been  consummated ;  all  conflicting  title  to  the 
Oregon  territory,  south  of  the  49th  degree  of  north  latitude, 
adjusted  ;  and  New  Mexico  and  Upper  California  have  been 
acquired  by  treaty.  The  area  of  these  several  territories 
contains  1,193,061  square  miles,  or  763,559,040  acres;  while 
the  area  of  the  remaining  twenty-nine  states,  and  the  terri- 
tory not  yet  organized  into  states  east  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains, contains  2,059,513  square  miles,  or  1,318,126,058  acres. 
These  estimates  show  that  the  territories  recently  acquired, 
and  over  which  our  exclusive  jurisdiction  and  dominion  have 
been  extended,  constitute  a  country  more  than  half  as  large 
as  all  that  which  was  held  by  the  United  States  before  their 
acquisition.  If  Oregon  be  excluded  from  the  estimate,  there 
will  still  remain  within  the  limits  of  Texas,  New  Mexico,  and 
California  851,598  square  miles,  or  545,012,720  acres  ;  being 
an  addition  equal  to  more  than  one  third  of  all  the  territory 
owned  by  the  United  States  before  their  acquisition  ;  and, 
including  Oregon,  nearly  as  great  an  extent  of  territory  as 
the  whole  of  Europe,  Russia  only  excepted.  The  Mississippi, 
so  lately  the  frontier  of  our  country,  is  now  only  its  center. 
With  the  addition  of  the  late  acquisitions,  the  United  States 
are  now  estimated  to  be  nearly  as  large  as  the  whole  of 
Europe.  The  extent  of  the  seacoast  of  Texas,  on  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico,  is  upward  of  400  miles  ;  of  the  coast  of  Upper  Cali- 
fornia, on  the  Pacific,  of  970  miles  ;  and  of  Oregon,  including 
the  straits  of  Fuca,  of  650  miles  ;  making  the  whole  extent  of 
seacoast  on  the  Pacific  1620  miles,  and  the  whole  extent  on 


322  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1777 

both  the  Pacific  and  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  2020  miles.  The 
length  of  the  coast  on  the  Atlantic,  from  the  northern  limits 
of  the  United  States,  round  the  Capes  of  Florida  to  the 
Sabine,  on  the  eastern  boundary  of  Texas,  is  estimated  to  be 
3100  miles,  so  that  the  addition  of  seacoast,  including  Ore- 
gon, is  very  nearly  two  thirds  as  great  as  all  we  possessed 
before  ;  and,  excluding  Oregon,  is  an  addition  of  1370  miles 
—  being  nearly  equal  to  one  half  of  the  extent  of  coast  which 
we  possessed  before  these  acquisitions.  We  have  now  three 
great  maritime  fronts  —  on  the  Atlantic,  the  Gulf  of  Mexico, 
and  the  Pacific  ;  making,  in  the  whole,  an  extent  of  seacoast 
exceeding  5000  miles.  This  is  the  extent  of  the  seacoast  of 
the  United  States,  not  including  bays,  sounds,  and  small  ir- 
regularities of  the  main  shore,  and  of  the  sea  islands.  If 
these  be  included,  the  length  of  the  shore  line  of  coast,  as 
estimated  by  the  superintendent  of  the  Coast  Survey,  in  his 
report,  would  be  33,063  miles." 

The  importance  of  the  power  of  the  United  States  being, 
then,  firmly  planted  along  the  Pacific  applies  not  only  to  the 
New  World,  but  to  the  Old.  Opposite  to  San  Francisco,  on 
the  coast  of  that  ocean,  lie  the  wealthy  but  decrepit  empires 
of  China  and  Japan.  Numerous  groups  of  islets  stud  the 
larger  part  of  the  intervening  sea,  and  form  convenient  step- 
ping-stones for  the  progress  of  commerce  or  ambition.  The 
intercourse  of  traffic  between  these  ancient  Asiatic  mon- 
archies and  the  young  Anglo-American  republic  must  be 
rapid  and  extensive.  Any  attempt  of  the  Chinese  or  Jap- 
anese rulers  to  check  it  will  only  accelerate  an  armed  col- 
lision. The  American  will  either  buy  or  force  his  way. 
Between  such  populations  as  that  of  China  and  Japan  on 
the  one  side  and  that  of  the  United  States  on  the  other  — 
the  former  haughty,  formal,  and  insolent;  the  latter  bold, 
intrusive,  and  unscrupulous  —  causes  of  quarrel  must,  sooner 
or  later,  arise.  The  results  of  such  a  quarrel  cannot  be 
doubted.  America  will  scarcely  imitate  the  forbearance 
shown  by  England  at  the  end  of  our  late  war  with  the 
Celestial  Empire ;  and  the  conquest  of  China  and  Japan  by 
the  fleets  and  armies  of  the  United  States  are  events  which 
many  now  living  are  likely  to  witness.  Compared  with  the 
magnitude  of   such    changes   in    the    dominion  of   the    Old 


i777]  BATTLE   OF   SARATOGA  323 

World,  the  certain  ascendency  of  the  Anglo-Americans  over 
Central  and  Southern  America  seems  a  matter  of  secondary 
importance.  Well  may  we  repeat  De  Tocqueville's  words, 
that  the  growing  power  of  this  commonwealth  is,  "  Un  fait 
entierement  nouveau  dans  le  monde,  et  dont  l'imagination 
elle-meme  ne  saurait  saisir  la  portee."2 

An  Englishman  may  look,  and  ought  to  look,  on  the  grow- 
ing grandeur  of  the  Americans  with  no  small  degree  of  gen- 
erous sympathy  and  satisfaction.  They,  like  ourselves,  are 
members  of  the  great  Anglo-Saxon  nation  "  whose  race  and 
language  are  now  overrunning  the  world  from  one  end  of  it 
to  the  other."  And  whatever  differences  of  form  of  gov- 
ernment may  exist  between  us  and  them  —  whatever  rem- 
iniscences of  the  days  when,  though  brethren,  we  strove 
together  may  rankle  in  the  minds  of  us,  the  defeated  party 
—  we  should  cherish  the  bonds  of  common  nationality  that 
still  exist  between  us.  We  should  remember,  as  the  Athe- 
nians remembered  of  the  Spartans  at  a  season  of  jealousy 
and  temptation,  that  our  race  is  one,  being  of  the  same  blood, 
speaking  the  same  language,  having  an  essential  resemblance 
in  our  institutions  and  usages,  and  worshiping  in  the  temples 
of  the  same  God.  All  this  may  and  should  be  borne  in  mind. 
And  yet  an  Englishman  can  hardly  watch  the  progress  of 
America  without  the  regretful  thought  that  America  once  was 
English,  and  that  but  for  the  folly  of  our  rulers  she  might  be 
English  still.  It  is  true  that  the  commerce  between  the  two 
countries  has  largely  and  beneficially  increased ;  but  this  is 
no  proof  that  the  increase  would  not  have  been  still  greater 
had  the  states  remained  integral  portions  of  the  same  great 
empire.  By  giving  a  fair  and  just  participation  in  political 
rights,  these,  "the  fairest  possessions"  of  the  British  crown, 
might  have  been  preserved  to  it.  "  This  ancient  and  most 
noble  monarchy "  would  not  have  been  dismembered ;  nor 
should  we  see  that  which  ought  to  be  the  right  arm  of  our 
strength  now  menacing  us  in  every  political  crisis,  as  the  most 
formidable  rival  of  our  commercial  and  maritime  ascendency. 

The  war  which  rent  away  the  North  American  colonies  of 
England  is,  of  all  subjects  in  history,  the  most  painful  for  an 
Englishman  to  dwell  on.  It  was  commenced  and  carried  on 
by  the  British  ministry  in  iniquity  and  folly,  and  it  was  con- 


324  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1777 

eluded  in  disaster  and  shame.  But  the  contemplation  of  it 
cannot  be  evaded  by  the  historian,  however  much  it  may  be 
abhorred.  Nor  can  any  military  event  be  said  to  have  exer- 
cised more  important  influence  on  the  future  fortunes  of  man- 
kind than  the  complete  defeat  of  Burgoyne's  expedition  in 
1 JJJ ;  a  defeat  which  rescued  the  revolted  colonists  from  cer- 
tain subjection ;  and  which,  by  inducing  the  courts  of  France 
and  Spain  to  attack  England  in  their  behalf,  insured  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  United  States  and  the  formation  of  that  trans- 
Atlantic  power  which  not  only  America,  but  both  Europe  and 
Asia,  now  see  and  feel. 

Still,  in  proceeding  to  describe  this  "  decisive  battle  of  the 
world,"  a  very  brief  recapitulation  of  the  earlier  events  of  the 
war  may  be  sufficient ;  nor  shall  I  linger  unnecessarily  on  a 
painful  theme. 

The  five  northern  colonies  of  Massachusetts,  Connecticut, 
Rhode  Island,  New  Hampshire,  and  Vermont,  usually  classed 
together  as  the  New  England  colonies,  were  the  strongholds 
of  the  insurrection  against  the  mother  country.  The  feeling 
of  resistance  was  less  vehement  and  general  in  the  central 
settlement  of  New  York ;  and  still  less  so  in  Pennsylvania, 
Maryland,  and  the  other  colonies  of  the  south,  although  every- 
where it  was  formidably  active.  Virginia  should,  perhaps,  be 
particularized  for  the  zeal  which  its  leading  men  displayed  in 
the  American  cause ;  but  it  was  among  the  descendants  of  the 
stern  Puritans  that  the  spirit  of  Cromwell  and  Vane  breathed 
in  all  its  fervor ;  it  was  from  the  New  Englanders  that  the  first 
armed  opposition  to  the  British  crown  had  been  offered ;  and 
it  was  by  them  that  the  most  stubborn  determination  to  fight 
to  the  last,  rather  than  waive  a  single  right  or  privilege,  had 
been  displayed.  In  1775  they  had  succeeded  in  forcing  the 
British  troops  to  evacuate  Boston;  and  the  events  of  1776 
had  made  New  York  (which  the  royalists  captured  in  that 
year)  the  principal  basis  of  operations  for  the  armies  of  the 
mother  country. 

A  glance  at  the  map  will  show  that  the  Hudson  River, 
which  falls  into  the  Atlantic  at  New  York,  runs  down  from 
the  north  at  the  back  of  the  New  England  states,  forming  an 
angle  of  about  forty-five  degrees  with  the  line  of  the  coast  of 
the  Atlantic,  along  which  the  New  England  states  are  situate. 


1777]  BATTLE   OF   SARATOGA  325 

Northward  of  the  Hudson  we  see  a  small  chain  of  lakes  com- 
municating with  the  Canadian  frontier.  It  is  necessary  to 
attend  closely  to  these  geographical  points,  in  order  to  under- 
stand the  plan  of  the  operations  which  the  English  attempted 
in  1777,  and  which  the  battle  of  Saratoga  defeated. 

The  English  had  a  considerable  force  in  Canada,  and  in 
1776  had  completely  repulsed  an  attack  which  the  Americans 
had  made  upon  that  province.  The  British  ministry  resolved 
to  avail  themselves,  in  the  next  year,  of  the  advantage  which 
the  occupation  of  Canada  gave  them,  not  merely  for  the  pur- 
pose of  defense,  but  for  the  purpose  of  striking  a  vigorous 
and  crushing  blow  against  the  revolted  colonies.  With  this 
view,  the  army  in  Canada  was  largely  reenforced.  Seven 
thousand  veteran  troops  were  sent  out  from  England,  with  a 
corps  of  artillery  abundantly  supplied,  and  led  by  select  and 
experienced  officers.  Large  quantities  of  military  stores  were 
also  furnished  for  the  equipment  of  the  Canadian  volunteers 
who  were  expected  to  join  the  expedition.  It  was  intended 
that  the  force  thus  collected  should  march  southward  by  the 
line  of  the  lakes,  and  thence  along  the  banks  of  the  Hudson 
River.  The  British  army  in  New  York  (or  a  large  detach- 
ment of  it)  was  to  make  a  simultaneous  movement  northward 
up  the  line  of  the  Hudson,  and  the  two  expeditions  were  to 
unite  at  Albany,  a  town  on  that  river.  By  these  operations 
all  communication  between  the  northern  colonies  and  those 
of  the  center  and  south  would  be  cut  off.  An  irresistible 
force  would  be  concentrated,  so  as  to  crush  all  further  oppo- 
sition in  New  England ;  and  when  this  was  done,  it  was 
believed  that  the  other  colonies  would  speedily  submit.  The 
Americans  had  no  troops  in  the  field  that  seemed  able  to 
baffle  these  movements.  Their  principal  army,  under  Wash- 
ington, was  occupied  in  watching  over  Pennsylvania  and  the 
south.  At  any  rate,  it  was  believed  that,  in  order  to  oppose 
the  plan  intended  for  the  new  campaign,  the  insurgents  must 
risk  a  pitched  battle,  in  which  the  superiority  of  the  royalists 
in  numbers,  in  discipline,  and  in  equipment  seemed  to  promise 
to  the  latter  a  crowning  victory.  Without  question  the  plan 
was  ably  formed ;  and  had  the  success  of  the  execution  been 
equal  to  the  ingenuity  of  the  design,  the  re-conquest  or  sub- 
mission of  the  thirteen  United  States  must,  in  all  human  prob- 


326  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1777 

ability,  have  followed ;  and  the  independence  which  they 
proclaimed  in  1776  would  have  been  extinguished  before  it 
existed  a  second  year.  No  European  power  had  as  yet  come 
forward  to  aid  America.  It  is  true  that  England  was  gener- 
ally regarded  with  jealousy  and  ill  will,  and  was  thought  to 
have  acquired,  at  the  Treaty  of  Paris,  a  preponderance  of 
dominion  which  was  perilous  to  the  balance  of  power ;  but 
though  many  were  willing  to  wound,  none  had  yet  ventured 
to  strike ;  and  America,  if  defeated  in  1777,  would  have  been 
suffered  to  fall  unaided.3 

Burgoyne  had  gained  celebrity  by  some  bold  and  dashing 
exploits  in  Portugal  during  the  last  war ;  he  was  personally 
as  brave  an  officer  as  ever  headed  British  troops ;  he  had 
considerable  skill  as  a  tactician ;  and  his  general  intellectual 
abilities  and  acquirements  were  of  a  high  order.  He  had  sev- 
eral very  able  and  experienced  officers  under  him,  among 
whom  were  Major-general  Phillips  and  Brigadier-general 
Fraser.  His  regular  troops  amounted,  exclusively  of  the 
corps  of  artillery,  to  about  seven  thousand  two  hundred  men, 
rank  and  file.  Nearly  half  of  these  were  Germans.  He  had 
also  an  auxiliary  force  of  from  two  to  three  thousand  Cana- 
dians. He  summoned  the  warriors  of  several  tribes  of  the 
red  Indians  near  the  western  lakes  to  join  his  army.  Much 
eloquence  was  poured  forth,  both  in  America  and  in  England, 
in  denouncing  the  use  of  these  savage  auxiliaries.  Yet  Bur- 
goyne seems  to  have  done  no  more  than  Montcalm,  Wolfe, 
and  other  French,  American,  and  English  generals  had  done 
before  him.  But,  in  truth,  the  lawless  ferocity  of  the  Indians, 
their  unskilfulness  in  regular  action,  and  the  utter  impossi- 
bility of  bringing  them  under  any  discipline,  made  their  ser- 
vices of  little  or  no  value  in  times  of  difficulty ;  while  the 
indignation  which  their  outrages  inspired  went  far  to  rouse 
the  whole  population  of  the  invaded  districts  into  active  hos- 
tilities against  Burgoyne's  force. 

Burgoyne  assembled  his  troops  and  confederates  near  the 
river  Bouquet,  on  the  west  side  of  Lake  Champlain.  He 
then,  on  the  21st  of  June,  1777,  gave  his  red  allies  a  war- 
feast,  and  harangued  them  on  the  necessity  of  abstaining 
from  their  usual  cruel  practises  against  unarmed  people  and 
prisoners.     At  the  same  time  he  published  a  pompous  mani- 


1777]  BATTLE   OF   SARATOGA  327 

1  festo  to  the  Americans,  in  which  he  threatened  the  refractory 
with  all  the  horrors  of  war,  Indian  as  well  as  European. 
The  army  proceeded  by  water  to  Crown  Point,  a  fortification 
which  the  Americans  held  at  the  northern  extremity  of  the 
inlet  by  which  the  water  from  Lake  George  is  conveyed  to 
Lake  Champlain.  He  landed  here  without  opposition ;  but 
the  reduction  of  Ticonderoga,  a  fortification  about  twelve 
miles  to  the  south  of  Crown  Point,  was  a  more  serious  mat- 
ter, and  was  supposed  to  be  the  critical  part  of  the  expedi- 
tion. Ticonderoga  commanded  the  passage  along  the  lakes, 
and  was  considered  to  be  the  key  to  the  route  which  Bur- 
goyne  wished  to  follow.  The  English  had  been  repulsed 
in  an  attack  on  it  in  the  war  with  the  French  in  1758  with 
severe  loss.  But  Burgoyne  now  invested  it  with  great  skill ; 
and  the  American  general,  St.  Clair,  who  had  only  an  ill- 
equipped  army  of  about  three  thousand  men,  evacuated  it 
on  the  5th  of  July.  It  seems  evident  that  a  different  course 
would  have  caused  the  destruction  or  capture  of  his  whole 
army,  which,  weak  as  it  was,  was  the  chief  force  then  in  the 
field  for  the  protection  of  the  New  England  states.  When 
censured  by  some  of  his  countrymen  for  abandoning  Ticon- 
deroga, St.  Clair  truly  replied,  "  that  he  had  lost  a  post  but 
saved  a  province."  Burgoyne's  troops  pursued  the  retiring 
Americans,  gained  several  advantages  over  them,  and  took  a 
large  part  of  their  artillery  and  military  stores. 

The  loss  of  the  British  in  these  engagements  was  trifling. 
The  army  moved  southward  along  Lake  George  to  Skenes- 
borough ;  and  thence  slowly,  and  with  great  difficulty,  across 
a  broken  country,  full  of  creeks  and  marshes,  and  clogged 
by  the  enemy  with  felled  trees  and  other  obstacles,  to  Fort 
Edward,  on  the  Hudson  River,  the  American  troops  continu- 
ing to  retire  before  them. 

Burgoyne  reached  the  left  bank  of  the  Hudson  River  on 
the  30th  of  July.  Hitherto  he  had  overcome  every  difficulty 
which  the  enemy  and  the  nature  of  the  country  had  placed 
in  his  way.  His  army  was  in  excellent  order  and  in  the 
highest  spirits ;  and  the  peril  of  the  expedition  seemed  over 
when  they  were  once  on  the  bank  of  the  river  which  was 
to  be  the  channel  of  communication  between  them  and  the 
British  army  in  the  south.     But  their  feelings,  and  those  of 


328  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1777 

the  English  nation  in  general  when  their  successes  were 
announced,  may  best  be  learned  from  a  contemporary  writer. 
Burke,  in  the  "Annual  Register"  for  1777,  describes  them 
thus : — 

"  Such  was  the  rapid  torrent  of  success  which  swept  every- 
thing away  before  the  northern  army  in  its  onset.  It  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at  if  both  officers  and  private  men  were 
highly  elated  with  their  good  fortune,  and  deemed  that  and 
their  prowess  to  be  irresistible ;  if  they  regarded  their  enemy 
with  the  greatest  contempt ;  considered  their  own  toils  to  be 
nearly  at  an  end ;  Albany  to  be  already  in  their  hands ;  and 
the  reduction  of  the  northern  provinces  to  be  rather  a  mat- 
ter of  some  time  than  an  arduous  task  full  of  difficulty  and 
danger. 

"  At  home,  the  joy  and  exultation  were  extreme,  —  not  only 
at  court,  but  with  all  those  who  hoped  or  wished  the  unquali- 
fied subjugation  and  unconditional  submission  of  the  colonies. 
The  loss  in  reputation  was  greater  to  the  Americans,  and 
capable  of  more  fatal  consequences,  than  even  that  of  ground, 
of  posts,  of  artillery,  or  of  men.  All  the  contemptuous  and 
most  degrading  charges  which  had  been  made  by  their  ene- 
mies, of  their  wanting  the  resolution  and  abilities  of  men, 
even  in  their  defense  of  whatever  was  dear  to  them,  were 
now  repeated  and  believed.  Those  who  still  regarded  them 
as  men,  and  who  had  not  yet  lost  all  affection  to  them  as 
brethren,  who  also  retained  hopes  that  a  happy  reconciliation 
upon  constitutional  principles,  without  sacrificing  the  dignity 
or  the  just  authority  of  government  on  the  one  side,  or  a 
dereliction  of  the  rights  of  freemen  on  the  other,  was  not 
even  now  impossible,  notwithstanding  their  favorable  disposi- 
tions in  general  could  not  help  feeling  upon  this  occasion 
that  the  Americans  sank  not  a  little  in  their  estimation.  It 
was  not  difficult  to  diffuse  an  opinion  that  the  war  in  effect 
was  over ;  and  that  any  further  resistance  could  serve  only 
to  render  the  terms  of  their  submission  the  worse.  Such 
were  some  of  the  immediate  effects  of  the  loss  of  those  grand 
keys  of  North  America,  Ticonderoga  and  the  lakes." 

The  astonishment  and  alarm  which  these  events  produced 
among  the  Americans  were  naturally  great ;  but  in  the  midst 
of  their  disasters  none  of  the  colonists  showed  any  disposi- 


1777]  BATTLE   OF   SARATOGA  329 

tion  to  submit.  The  local  governments  of  the  New  England 
states,  as  well  as  the  Congress,  acted  with  vigor  and  firmness 
in  their  efforts  to  repel  the  enemy.  General  Gates  was  sent 
to  take  command  of  the  army  at  Saratoga;  and  Arnold,  a 
favorite  leader  of  the  Americans,  was  despatched  by  Wash- 
ington to  act  under  him,  with  reenforcements  of  troops  and 
guns  from  the  main  American  army.  Burgoyne's  employ- 
ment of  the  Indians  now  produced  the  worst  possible  effects. 
Though  he  labored  hard  to  check  the  atrocities  which  they 
were  accustomed  to  commit,  he  could  not  prevent  the  occur- 
rence of  many  barbarous  outrages,  repugnant  both  to  the 
feelings  of  humanity  and  to  the  laws  of  civilized  warfare. 
The  American  commanders  took  care  that  the  reports  of 
these  excesses  should  be  circulated  far  and  wide,  well  know- 
ing that  they  would  make  the  stern  New  Englanders  not 
droop,  but  rage.  Such  was  their  effect ;  and  though,  when 
each  man  looked  upon  his  wife,  his  children,  his  sisters,  or 
his  aged  parents,  the  thought  of  the  merciless  Indian  "  thirst- 
ing for  the  blood  of  man,  woman,  and  child,"  of  "the  canni- 
bal savage  torturing,  murdering,  roasting,  and  eating  the 
mangled  victims  of  his  barbarous  battles"  [Chatham],  might 
raise  terror  in  the  bravest  breasts,  this  very  terror  produced 
a  directly  contrary  effect  to  causing  submission  to  the  royal 
army.  It  was  seen  that  the  few  friends  of  the  royal  cause, 
as  well  as  its  enemies,  were  liable  to  be  the  victims  of  the 
indiscriminate  rage  of  the  savages  ;  and  thus  "the  inhabitants 
of  the  open  and  frontier  countries  had  no  choice  of  acting : 
they  had  no  means  of  security  left  but  by  abandoning  their 
habitations  and  taking  up  arms.  Every  man  saw  the  neces- 
sity of  becoming  a  temporary  soldier,  not  only  for  his  own 
security,  but  for  the  protection  and  defense  of  those  connec- 
tions which  are  dearer  than  life  itself."  Thus  an  army  was 
poured  forth  by  the  woods,  mountains,  and  marshes,  which 
in  this  part  were  thickly  sown  with  plantations  and  villages. 
The  Americans  recalled  their  courage  ;  and  when  their  regu- 
lar army  seemed  to  be  entirely  wasted,  the  spirit  of  the  coun- 
try produced  a  much  greater  and  more  formidable  force. 

While  resolute  recruits,  accustomed  to  the  use  of  firearms 
and  all  partially  trained  by  service  in  the  provincial  militias, 
were  thus  flocking  to  the  standard  of  Gates  and  Arnold  at 


330  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1777 

Saratoga,  and  while  Burgoyne  was  engaged  at  Fort  Edward 
in  providing  the  means  for  the  further  advance  of  his  army- 
through  the  intricate  and  hostile  country  that  still  lay  before 
him,  two  events  occurred,  in  each  of  which  the  British  sus- 
tained loss  and  the  Americans  obtained  advantage,  the  moral 
effects  of  which  were  even  more  important  than  the  immedi- 
ate result  of  the  encounters.  When  Burgoyne  left  Canada, 
General  St.  Leger  was  detached  from  that  province  with  a 
mixed  force  of  about  one  thousand  men,  and  some  light  field- 
pieces,  across  Lake  Ontario  against  Fort  Stanwix,  which  the 
Americans  held.  After  capturing  this,  he  was  to  march  along 
the  Mohawk  River  to  its  confluence  with  the  Hudson,  between 
Saratoga  and  Albany,  where  his  force  and  that  of  Burgoyne 
were  to  unite.  But,  after  some  successes,  St.  Leger  was 
obliged  to  retreat,  and  to  abandon  his  tents  and  large  quanti- 
ties of  stores  to  the  garrison.  At  the  very  time  that  General 
Burgoyne  heard  of  this  disaster,  he  experienced  one  still  more 
severe  in  the  defeat  of  Colonel  Baum  with  a  large  detach- 
ment of  German  troops  at  Bennington,  whither  Burgoyne  had 
sent  them  for  the  purpose  of  capturing  some  magazines  of 
provisions,  of  which  the  British  army  stood  greatly  in  need. 
The  Americans,  augmented  by  continual  accessions  of  strength, 
succeeded,  after  many  attacks,  in  breaking  this  corps,  which 
fled  into  the  woods,  and  left  its  commander  mortally  wounded 
on  the  field ;  they  then  marched  against  a  force  of  five  hun- 
dred grenadiers  and  light  infantry,  which  was  advancing  to 
Colonel  Baum's  assistance  under  Lieutenant-colonel  Brey- 
man,  who,  after  a  gallant  resistance,  was  obliged  to  retreat 
on  the  main  army.  The  British  loss  in  these  two  actions 
exceeded  six  hundred  men ;  and  a  party  of  American  loyalists 
on  their  way  to  join  the  army,  having  attached  themselves  to 
Colonel  Baum's  corps,  were  destroyed  with  it. 

Notwithstanding  these  reverses,  which  added  greatly  to  the 
spirit  and  numbers  of  the  American  forces,  Burgoyne  deter- 
mined to  advance.  It  was  impossible  any  longer  to  keep  up 
his  communications  with  Canada  by  way  of  the  lakes,  so  as 
to  supply  his  army  on  his  southward  march ;  but  having  by 
unremitting  exertions  collected  provisions  for  thirty  days,  he 
crossed  the  Hudson  by  means  of  a  bridge  of  rafts,  and,  march- 
ing a  short  distance  along  its  western  bank,  he  encamped  on 


1777]  BATTLE   OF   SARATOGA  33 1 

the  14th  of  September  on  the  heights  of  Saratoga,  about  six- 
teen miles  from  Albany.  The  Americans  had  fallen  back 
from  Saratoga,  and  were  now  strongly  posted  near  Stillwater, 
about  half-way  between  Saratoga  and  Albany,  and  showed  a 
determination  to  recede  no  farther. 

Meanwhile  Lord  Howe,  with  the  bulk  of  the  British  army 
that  had  lain  at  New  York,  had  sailed  away  to  the  Delaware, 
and  there  commenced  a  campaign  against  Washington,  in 
which  the  English  general  took  Philadelphia,  and  gained  other 
showy  but  unprofitable  successes.  But  Sir  Henry  Clinton, 
a  brave  and  skilful  officer,  was  left  with  a  considerable  force 
at  New  York ;  and  he  undertook  the  task  of  moving  up  the 
Hudson  to  cooperate  with  Burgoyne.  Clinton  was  obliged, 
for  this  purpose,  to  wait  for  reenforcements  which  had  been 
promised  from  England,  and  these  did  not  arrive  till  Septem- 
ber. As  soon  as  he  received  them,  Clinton  embarked  about 
3000  of  his  men  on  a  flotilla,  convoyed  by  some  ships  of  war 
under  Commander  Hotham,  and  proceeded  to  force  his  way 
up  the  river ;  but  it  was  long  before  he  was  able  to  open  any 
communication  with  Burgoyne. 

The  country  between  Burgoyne's  position  at  Saratoga  and 
that  of  the  Americans  at  Stillwater  was  rugged,  and  seamed 
with  creeks  and  watercourses  ;  but  after  great  labor  in  making 
bridges  and  temporary  causeways,  the  British  army  moved  for- 
ward. About  four  miles  from  Saratoga,  on  the  afternoon  of 
the  19th  of  September,  a  sharp  encounter  took  place  between 
part  of  the  English  right  wing,  under  Burgoyne  himself,  and 
a  strong  body  of  the  enemy,  under  Gates  and  Arnold.  The 
conflict  lasted  till  sunset.  The  British  remained  masters  of 
the  field ;  but  the  loss  on  each  side  was  nearly  equal  (from 
five  hundred  to  six  hundred  men);  and  the  spirits  of  the 
Americans  were  greatly  raised  by  having  withstood  the  best 
regular  troops  of  the  English  army.  Burgoyne  now  halted 
again,  and  strengthened  his  position  by  field-works  and  re- 
doubts; and  the  Americans  also  improved  their  defenses. 
The  two  armies  remained  nearly  within  cannon-shot  of  each 
other  for  a  considerable  time,  during  which  Burgoyne  was 
anxiously  looking  for  intelligence  of  the  promised  expedition 
from  New  York,  which,  according  to  the  original  plan,  ought 
by   this   time   to  have  been   approaching  Albany  from  the 


332  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1777 

south.  At  last  a  messenger  from  Clinton  made  his  way  with 
great  difficulty  to  Burgoyne's  camp,  and  brought  the  informa- 
tion that  Clinton  was  on  his  way  up  the  Hudson  to  attack 
the  American  forts  which  barred  the  passage  up  that  river 
to  Albany.  Burgoyne,  in  reply,  on  the  30th  of  September, 
urged  Clinton  to  attack  the  forts  as  speedily  as  possible,  stat- 
ing that  the  effect  of  such  an  attack,  or  even  the  semblance 
of  it,  would  be  to  move  the  American  army  from  its  position 
before  his  own  troops.  By  another  messenger,  who  reached 
Clinton  on  the  5th  of  October,  Burgoyne  informed  his  brother 
general  that  he  had  lost  his  communications  with  Canada,  but 
had  provisions  which  would  last  him  till  the  20th.  Burgoyne 
described  himself  as  strongly  posted,  and  stated  that,  though 
the  Americans  in  front  of  him  were  strongly  posted  also,  he 
made  no  doubt  of  being  able  to  force  them  and  making  his 
way  to  Albany ;  but  that  he  doubted  whether  he  could  subsist 
there,  as  the  country  was  drained  of  provisions.  He  wished 
Clinton  to  meet  him  there  and  to  keep  open  a  communication 
with  New  York. 

Burgoyne  had  overestimated  his  resources,  and  in  the  very 
beginning  of  October  found  difficulty  and  distress  pressing 
him  hard. 

The  Indians  and  Canadians  began  to  desert  him;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  Gates's  army  was  continually  reenforced 
by  fresh  bodies  of  the  militia.  An  expeditionary  force  was 
detached  by  the  Americans,  which  made  a  bold  though  un- 
successful attempt  to  retake  Ticonderoga.  And  finding  the 
number  and  spirit  of  the  enemy  to  increase  daily,  and  his 
own  stores  of  provisions  to  diminish,  Burgoyne  determined 
on  attacking  the  Americans  in  front  of  him,  and  by  dislodg- 
ing them  from  their  position  to  gain  the  means  of  moving 
upon  Albany,  or  at  least  of  relieving  his  troops  from  the 
straitened  position  in  which  they  were  cooped  up. 

Burgoyne's  force  was  now  reduced  to  less  than  6000  men. 
The  right  of  his  camp  was  on  some  high  ground  a  little  to 
the  west  of  the  river;  thence  his  entrenchments  extended 
along  the  lower  ground  to  the  bank  of  the  Hudson,  the  line 
of  their  front  being  nearly  at  a  right  angle  with  the  course  of 
the  stream.  The  lines  were  fortified  with  redoubts  and  field- 
works,  and  on  a  height  on  the  flank  of  the  extreme  right  a 


1777]  BATTLE   OF   SARATOGA  333 

strong  redoubt  was  reared,  and  entrenchments,  in  a  horseshoe 
form,  thrown  up.  The  Hessians,  under  Colonel  Breyman, 
were  stationed  here,  forming  a  flank  defense  to  Burgoyne's 
main  army.  The  numerical  force  of  the  Americans  was  now 
greater  than  the  British,  even  in  regular  troops,  and  the  num- 
bers of  the  militia  and  volunteers  which  had  joined  Gates  and 
Arnold  were  greater  still. 

General  Lincoln,  with  2060  New  England  troops,  had 
reached  the  American  camp  on  the  29th  of  September. 
Gates  gave  him  the  command  of  the  right  wing,  and  took 
in  person  the  command  of  the  left  wing,  which  was  com- 
posed of  two  brigades  under  Generals  Poor  and  Learned,  of 
Colonel  Morgan's  rifle-corps,  and  part  of  the  fresh  New  Eng- 
land militia.  The  whole  of  the  American  lines  had  been 
ably  fortified  under  the  direction  of  the  celebrated  Polish 
general,  Kosciusko,  who  was  now  serving  as  a  volunteer  in 
Gates's  army.  The  right  of  the  American  position  —  that 
is  to  say,  the  part  of  it  nearest  to  the  river  —  was  too  strong 
to  be  assailed  with  any  prospect  of  success,  and  Burgoyne 
therefore  determined  to  endeavor  to  force  their  left.  For 
this  purpose  he  formed  a  column  of  1 500  regular  troops,  with 
two  twelve-pounders,  two  howitzers,  and  six  six-pounders. 
He  headed  this  in  person,  having  Generals  Phillips,  Riedesel, 
and  Fraser  under  him.  The  enemy's  force  immediately  in 
front  of  his  lines  was  so  strong  that  he  dared  not  weaken  the 
troops  who  guarded  them  by  detaching  any  more  to  strengthen 
his  column  of  attack. 

It  was  on  the  7th  of  October  that  Burgoyne  led  his  column 
forward  ;  and  on  the  preceding  day,  the  6th,  Clinton  had  suc- 
cessfully executed  a  brilliant  enterprise  against  the  two  Ameri- 
can forts  which  barred  his  progress  up  the  Hudson.  He  had 
captured  them  both,  with  severe  loss  to  the  American  forces 
opposed  to  him  ;  he  had  destroyed  the  fleet  which  the  Ameri- 
cans had  been  forming  on  the  Hudson,  under  protection  of 
their  forts ;  and  the  upward  river  was  laid  open  to  his  squad- 
ron. He  had  also,  with  admirable  skill  and  industry,  collected 
in  small  vessels,  such  as  could  float  within  a  few  miles  of 
Albany,  provisions  sufficient  to  supply  Burgoyne's  army  for 
six  months.  He  was  now  only  a  hundred  and  fifty-six  miles 
distant  from  Burgoyne;  and  a  detachment  of  1700  men  actu- 


334  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1777 

ally  advanced  within  forty  miles  of  Albany.  Unfortunately, 
Burgoyne  and  Clinton  were  each  ignorant  of  the  other's 
movements ;  but  if  Burgoyne  had  won  his  battle  on  the  7th, 
he  must,  on  advancing,  have  soon  learned  the  tidings  of  Clin- 
ton's success,  and  Clinton  would  have  heard  of  his.  A  junc- 
tion would  soon  have  been  made  of  the  two  victorious  armies, 
and  the  great  objects  of  the  campaign  might  yet  have  been 
accomplished.  All  depended  on  the  fortune  of  the  column 
with  which  Burgoyne,  on  the  eventful  7th  of  October,  1777, 
advanced  against  the  American  position.  There  were  brave 
men,  both  English  and  German,  in  its  ranks ;  and  in  particu- 
lar it  comprised  one  of  the  best  bodies  of  grenadiers  in  the 
British  service. 

Burgoyne  pushed  forward  some  bodies  of  irregular  troops 
to  distract  the  enemy's  attention,  and  led  his  column  to  within 
three  quarters  of  a  mile  from  the  left  of  Gates's  camp,  and 
then  deployed  his  men  into  line.  The  grenadiers  under 
Major  Ackland,  and  the  artillery  under  Major  Williams,  were 
drawn  up  on  the  left ;  a  corps  of  Germans  under  General 
Riedesel,  and  some  British  troops  under  General  Phillips, 
were  in  the  center ;  and  the  English  light  infantry,  and  the 
24th  Regiment  under  Lord  Balcarres  and  General  Fraser, 
were  on  the  right.  But  Gates  did  not  wait  to  be  attacked ; 
and  directly  the  British  line  was  formed  and  began  to  advance, 
the  American  general,  with  admirable  skill,  caused  General 
Poor's  brigade  of  New  York  and  New  Hampshire  troops, 
and  part  of  General  Learned's  brigade,  to  make  a  sudden 
and  vehement  rush  against  its  left,  and  at  the  same  time  sent 
Colonel  Morgan,  with  his  rifle-corps  and  other  troops,  amount- 
ing to  1500,  to  turn  the  right  of  the  English.  The  grena- 
diers under  Ackland  sustained  the  charge  of  superior  numbers 
nobly.  But  Gates  sent  more  Americans  forward,  and  in  a  few 
minutes  the  action  became  general  along  the  center,  so  as  to 
prevent  the  Germans  from  detaching  any  help  to  the  grena- 
diers. Morgan,  with  his  riflemen,  was  now  pressing  Lord 
Balcarres  and  General  Fraser  hard,  and  fresh  masses  of  the 
enemy  were  observed  advancing  from  their  extreme  left,  with 
the  evident  intention  of  forcing  the  British  right,  and  cutting 
off  its  retreat.  The  English  light  infantry  and  the  24th  now 
fell  back  and  formed  an  oblique  second  line,  which  enabled 


1777]  BATTLE   OF   SARATOGA  335 

them  to  baffle  this  maneuver  and  also  to  succor  their  com- 
rades in  the  left  wing,  the  gallant  grenadiers,  who  were  over- 
powered by  superior  numbers  and,  but  for  this  aid,  must 
have  been  cut  to  pieces. 

The  contest  now  was  fiercely  maintained  on  both  sides. 
The  English  cannon  were  repeatedly  taken  and  retaken ;  but 
when  the  grenadiers  near  them  were  forced  back  by  the 
weight  of  superior  numbers,  one  of  the  guns  was  permanently 
captured  by  the  Americans,  and  turned  upon  the  English. 
Major  Williams  and  Major  Ackland  were  both  made  prisoners, 
and  in  this  part  of  the  field  the  advantage  of  the  Americans 
was  decided.  The  British  center  still  held  its  ground ;  but 
now  it  was  that  the  American  general  Arnold  appeared  upon 
the  scene  and  did  more  for  his  countrymen  than  whole  bat- 
talions could  have  effected.  Arnold,  when  the  decisive 
engagement  of  the  7th  of  October  commenced,  had  been 
deprived  of  his  command  by  Gates,  in  consequence  of  a 
quarrel  between  them  about  the  action  of  the  19th  of  Sep- 
tember. He  had  listened  for  a  short  time  in  the  American 
camp  to  the  thunder  of  the  battle,  in  which  he  had  no  military 
right  to  take  part,  either  as  commander  or  as  combatant. 
But  his  excited  spirit  could  not  long  endure  such  a  state  of 
inaction.  He  called  for  his  horse,  a  powerful  brown  charger, 
and,  springing  on  it,  galloped  furiously  to  where  the  fight 
seemed  to  be  the  thickest.  Gates  saw  him,  and  sent  an  aide- 
de-camp  to  recall  him ;  but  Arnold  spurred  far  in  advance, 
and  placed  himself  at  the  head  of  three  regiments  which  had 
formerly  been  under  him,  and  which  welcomed  their  old  com- 
mander with  joyous  cheers.  He  led  them  instantly  upon  the 
British  center  ;  and  then,  galloping  along  the  American  line, 
he  issued  orders  for  a  renewed  and  a  closer  attack,  which 
were  obeyed  with  alacrity,  Arnold  himself  setting  the  example 
of  the  most  daring  personal  bravery  and  charging  more  than 
once,  sword  in  hand,  into  the  English  ranks.  On  the  British 
side  the  officers  did  their  duty  nobly ;  but  General  Fraser  was 
the  most  eminent  of  them  all,  restoring  order  wherever  the 
line  began  to  waver,  and  infusing  fresh  courage  into  his  men 
by  voice  and  example.  Mounted  on  an  iron-gray  charger, 
and  dressed  in  the  full  uniform  of  a  general  officer,  he  was 
conspicuous  to  foes  as  well  as  to  friends.     The  American 


336  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1777 

Colonel  Morgan  thought  that  the  fate  of  the  battle  rested  on 
this  gallant  man's  life,  and,  calling  several  of  his  best  marks- 
men round  him,  pointed  Fraser  out,  and  said :  "  That  officer 
is  General  Fraser ;  I  admire  him,  but  he  must  die.  Our  vic- 
tory depends  on  it.  Take  your  stations  in  that  clump  of 
bushes,  and  do  your  duty."  Within  five  minutes  Fraser 
fell  mortally  wounded,  and  was  carried  to  the  British  camp 
by  two  grenadiers.  Just  previously  to  his  being  struck  by 
the  fatal  bullet,  one  rifle-ball  had  cut  the  crupper  of  his  sad- 
dle and  another  had  passed  through  his  horse's  mane  close 
behind  the  ears.  His  aide-de-camp  had  noticed  this,  and  said : 
"  It  is  evident  that  you  are  marked  out  for  particular  aim ; 
would  it  not  be  prudent  for  you  to  retire  from  this  place  ?  " 
Fraser  replied :  "  My  duty  forbids  me  to  fly  from  danger  "  ; 
and  the  next  moment  he  fell. 

Burgoyne's  whole  force  were  now  compelled  to  retreat 
towards  their  camp.  The  left  and  center  were  in  complete 
disorder,  but  the  light  infantry  and  the  24th  checked  the  fury 
of  the  assailants,  and  the  remains  of  the  column  with  great 
difficulty  effected  their  return  to  their  camp,  leaving  six  of 
their  cannons  in  the  possession  of  the  enemy,  and  great  num- 
bers of  killed  and  wounded  on  the  field  ;  and  especially  a 
large  proportion  of  the  artillerymen,  who  had  stood  to  their 
guns  until  shot  down  or  bayoneted  beside  them  by  the 
advancing  Americans. 

Burgoyne's  column  had  been  defeated,  but  the  action  was 
not  yet  over.  The  English  had  scarcely  entered  the  camp, 
when  the  Americans,  pursuing  their  success,  assaulted  it  in 
several  places  with  remarkable  impetuosity,  rushing  in  upon 
the  entrenchments  and  redoubts  through  a  severe  fire  of 
grape-shot  and  musketry.  Arnold  especially,  who  on  this 
day  appeared  maddened  with  the  thirst  of  combat  and  car- 
nage, urged  on  the  attack  against  a  part  of  the  entrenchments 
which  was  occupied  by  the  light  infantry  under  Lord  Bal- 
carres.  But  the  English  received  him  with  vigor  and  spirit. 
The  struggle  here  was  obstinate  and  sanguinary.  At  length, 
as  it  grew  towards  evening,  Arnold,  having  forced  all  obsta- 
cles, entered  the  works  with  some  of  the  most  fearless  of 
his  followers.  But  in  this  critical  moment  of  glory  and 
danger,  he  received  a  painful  wound  in  the  same  leg  which 


1777]  BATTLE   OF   SARATOGA  337 

had  already  been  injured  at  the  assault  on  Quebec.  To  his 
bitter  regret  he  was  obliged  to  be  carried  back.  His  party- 
still  continued  the  attack,  but  the  English  also  continued 
their  obstinate  resistance;  and  at  last  night  fell,  and  the 
assailants  withdrew  from  this  quarter  of  the  British  entrench- 
ments. But  in  another  part  the  attack  had  been  more  suc- 
cessful. A  body  of  the  Americans,  under  Colonel  Brooke, 
forced  their  way  in  through  a  part  of  the  horseshoe  entrench- 
ments on  the  extreme  right,  which  was  defended  by  the  Hes- 
sian reserve  under  Colonel  Breyman.  The  Germans  resisted 
well,  and  Breyman  died  in  defense  of  his  post ;  but  the 
Americans  made  good  the  ground  which  they  had  won,  and 
captured  baggage,  tents,  artillery,  and  a  store  of  ammunition, 
which  they  were  greatly  in  need  of.  They  had,  by  establish- 
ing themselves  on  this  point,  acquired  the  means  of  com- 
pletely turning  the  right  flank  of  the  British  and  gaining 
their  rear.  To  prevent  this  calamity,  Burgoyne  effected  dur- 
ing the  night  an  entire  change  of  position.  With  great  skill 
he  removed  his  whole  army  to  some  heights  near  the  river,  a 
little  northward  of  the  former  camp,  and  he  there  drew  up 
his  men,  expecting  to  be  attacked  on  the  following  day.  But 
Gates  was  resolved  not  to  risk  the  certain  triumph  which  his 
success  had  already  secured  for  him.  He  harassed  the  Eng- 
lish with  skirmishes,  but  attempted  no  regular  attack.  Mean- 
while he  detached  bodies  of  troops  on  both  sides  of  the 
Hudson  to  prevent  the  British  from  recrossing  that  river, 
and  to  bar  their  retreat.  When  night  fell,  it  became  abso- 
lutely necessary  for  Burgoyne  to  retire  again,  and,  accordingly, 
the  troops  were  marched  through  a  stormy  and  rainy  night 
towards  Saratoga,  abandoning  their  sick  and  wounded  and 
the  greater  part  of  their  baggage  to  the  enemy. 

Before  the  rear-guard  quitted  the  camp,  the  last  sad  honors 
were  paid  to  the  brave  General  Fraser,  who  expired  on  the 
day  after  the  action. 

He  had,  almost  with  his  last  breath,  expressed  a  wish  to  be 
buried  in  the  redoubt  which  had  formed  the  part  of  the  British 
lines  where  he  had  been  stationed,  but  which  had  now  been 
abandoned  by  the  English,  and  was  within  full  range  of  the 
cannon  which  the  advancing  Americans  were  rapidly  placing 
in    position  to  bear  upon  Burgoyne's  force.     Burgoyne   re- 


338  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [i777 

solved,  nevertheless,  to  comply  with  the  dying  wish  of  his 
comrade ;  and  the  interment  took  place  under  circumstances 
the  most  affecting  that  have  ever  marked  a  soldier's  funeral. 
Still  more  interesting  is  the  narrative  of  Lady  Ackland's  pas- 
sage from  the  British  to  the  American  camp,  after  the  battle, 
to  share  the  captivity  and  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  her  hus- 
band, who  had  been  severely  wounded  and  left  in  the  enemy's 
power.  The  American  historian  Lossing  has  described  both 
these  touching  episodes  of  the  campaign  in  a  spirit  that  does 
honor  to  the  writer  as  well  as  to  his  subject.  After  narrating 
the  death  of  General  Fraser  on  the  8th  of  October,  he  says 
that  "it  was  just  at  sunset,  on  that  calm  October  evening, 
that  the  corpse  of  General  Fraser  was  carried  up  the  hill  to 
the  place  of  burial  within  the  '  great  redoubt.'  It  was  at- 
tended only  by  the  members  of  his  military  family  and  Mr. 
Brudenell,  the  chaplain ;  yet  the  eyes  of  hundreds  of  both 
armies  followed  the  solemn  procession,  while  the  Americans, 
ignorant  of  its  true  character,  kept  up  a  constant  cannonade 
upon  the  redoubt.  The  chaplain,  unawed  by  the  danger  to 
which  he  was  exposed,  as  the  cannon-balls  that  struck  the 
hill  threw  the  loose  soil  over  him,  pronounced  the  impressive 
funeral  service  of  the  Church  of  England  with  an  unfaltering 
voice.  The  growing  darkness  added  solemnity  to  the  scene. 
Suddenly  the  irregular  firing  ceased,  and  the  solemn  voice  of 
a  single  cannon,  at  measured  intervals,  boomed  along  the 
valley,  and  awakened  the  responses  of  the  hills.  It  was  a 
minute-gun  fired  by  the  Americans  in  honor  of  the  gallant 
dead.  The  moment  information  was  given  that  the  gather- 
ing at  the  redoubt  was  a  funeral  company,  fulfilling,  amid 
imminent  perils,  the  last-breathed  wishes  of  the  noble  Fraser, 
orders  were  issued  to  withhold  the  cannonade  with  balls,  and 
to  render  military  homage  to  the  fallen  brave. 

"The  case  of  Major  Ackland  and  his  heroic  wife  presents 
kindred  features.  He  belonged  to  the  corps  of  grenadiers, 
and  was  an  accomplished  soldier.  His  wife  accompanied  him 
to  Canada  in  1776,  and  during  the  whole  campaign  of  that 
year,  and  until  his  return  to  England  after  the  surrender  of 
Burgoyne,  in  the  autumn  of  1777,  endured  all  the  hardships, 
dangers,  and  privations  of  an  active  campaign  in  an  enemy's 
country.     At  Chambly,  on  the  Sorel,  she  attended  him  in  ill- 


1777]  BATTLE   OF   SARATOGA  339 

ness,  in  a  miserable  hut ;  and  when  he  was  wounded  in  the  bat- 
tle of  Hubbardton,  Vermont,  she  hastened  to  him  at  Skenes- 
borough  from  Montreal,  where  she  had  been  persuaded  to 
remain,  and  resolved  to  follow  the  army  thereafter.  Just  before 
crossing  the  Hudson,  she  and  her  husband  came  near  losing 
their  lives  in  consequence  of  their  tent  accidentally  taking  fire. 

"During  the  terrible  engagement  of  the  7th  of  October, 
she  heard  all  the  tumult  and  dreadful  thunder  of  the  battle 
in  which  her  husband  was  engaged ;  and  when,  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  8th,  the  British  fell  back  in  confusion  to  Wilbur's 
Basin,  she,  with  the  other  women,  was  obliged  to  take  refuge 
among  the  dead  and  dying ;  for  the  tents  were  all  struck,  and 
hardly  a  shed  was  left  standing.  Her  husband  was  wounded, 
and  a  prisoner  in  the  American  camp.  That  gallant  officer 
was  shot  through  both  legs  when  Poor  and  Learned's  troops 
assaulted  the  grenadiers  and  artillery  on  the  British  left,  on 
the  afternoon  of  the  7th.  Wilkinson,  Gates's  adjutant-general, 
while  pursuing  the  flying  enemy  when  they  abandoned  their 
battery,  heard  a  feeble  voice  exclaim,  '  Protect  me,  sir,  against 
that  boy.'  He  turned  and  saw  a  lad  with  a  musket  taking 
deliberate  aim  at  a  wounded  British  officer,  lying  in  a  corner 
of  a  worm  fence.  Wilkinson  ordered  the  boy  to  desist,  and 
discovered  the  wounded  man  to  be  Major  Ackland.  He  had 
him  conveyed  to  the  quarters  of  General  Poor  (now  the  resi- 
dence of  Mr.  Neilson)  on  the  heights,  where  every  attention 
was  paid  to  his  wants. 

"  When  the  intelligence  that  he  was  wounded  and  a  prisoner 
reached  his  wife,  she  was  greatly  distressed,  and,  by  the  advice 
of  her  friend,  Baron  Riedesel,  resolved  to  visit  the  American 
camp  and  implore  the  favor  of  a  personal  attendance  upon 
her  husband.  On  the  9th  she  sent  a  message  to  Burgoyne 
by  Lord  Petersham,  his  aide,  asking  permission  to  depart. 
'Though  I  was  ready  to  believe,'  says  Burgoyne,  'that  pa- 
tience and  fortitude,  in  a  supreme  degree,  were  to  be  found, 
as  well  as  every  other  virtue,  under  the  most  tender  forms,  I 
was  astonished  at  this  proposal.  After  so  long  an  agitation 
of  spirits,  exhausted  not  only  for  want  of  rest  but  absolute 
want  of  food,  drenched  in  rain  for  twelve  hours  together,  that 
a  woman  should  be  capable  of  such  an  undertaking  as  deliver- 
ing herself  to  an  enemy,  probably  in  the  night,  and  uncertain 


340  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1777 

of  what  hands  she  might  fall  into,  appeared  an  effort  above 
human  nature.  The  assistance  I  was  enabled  to  give  was 
small  indeed.  I  had  not  even  a  cup  of  wine  to  offer  her. 
All  I  could  furnish  to  her  was  an  open  boat,  and  a  few  lines, 
written  upon  dirty  wet  paper,  to  General  Gates,  recommend- 
ing her  to  his  protection.' 

"The  following  is  a  copy  of  the  note  from  Burgoyne  to 
General  Gates  :  '  Sir,  —  Lady  Harriet  Ackland,  a  lady  of  the 
first  distinction  of  family,  rank,  and  personal  virtues,  is  under 
such  concern  on  account  of  Major  Ackland,  her  husband, 
wounded  and  a  prisoner  in  your  hands,  that  I  cannot  refuse 
her  request  to  commit  her  to  your  protection.  Whatever  gen- 
eral impropriety  there  may  be  in  persons  in  my  situation  and 
yours  to  solicit  favors,  I  cannot  see  the  uncommon  persever- 
ance in  every  female  grace  and  exaltation  of  character  of  this 
lady,  and  her  very  hard  fortune,  without  testifying  that  your 
attentions  to  her  will  lay  me  under  obligations.  I  am,  sir, 
your  obedient  servant,  J.  Burgoyne.' 

"  She  set  out  in  an  open  boat  upon  the  Hudson,  accom- 
panied by  Mr.  Brudenell,  the  chaplain,  Sarah  Pollard  her 
waiting-maid,  and  her  husband's  valet,  who  had  been  severely 
wounded  while  searching  for  his  master  upon  the  battle-field. 
It  was  about  sunset  when  they  started,  and  a  violent  storm 
of  rain  and  wind,  which  had  been  increasing  since  morning, 
rendered  the  voyage  tedious  and  perilous  in  the  extreme.  It 
was  long  after  dark  when  they  reached  the  American  out- 
posts ;  the  sentinel  heard  their  oars  and  hailed  them.  Lady 
Harriet  returned  the  answer  herself.  The  clear,  silvery  tones 
of  a  woman's  voice  amid  the  darkness  filled  the  soldier  on 
duty  with  superstitious  fear,  and  he  called  a  comrade  to 
accompany  him  to  the  river  bank.  The  errand  of  the  voy- 
agers was  made  known,  but  the  faithful  guard,  apprehensive 
of  treachery,  would  not  allow  them  to  land  until  they  sent  for 
Major  Dearborn.  They  were  invited  by  that  officer  to  his 
quarters,  where  every  attention  was  paid  to  them  and  Lady 
Harriet  was  comforted  by  the  joyful  tidings  that  her  husband 
was  safe.  In  the  morning  she  experienced  parental  tender- 
ness from  General  Gates,  who  sent  her  to  her  husband,  at 
Poor's  quarters,  under  a  suitable  escort.  There  she  remained 
until  he  was  removed  to  Albany." 


1777J  BATTLE   OF   SARATOGA  341 

Burgoyne  now  took  up  his  last  position  on  the  heights  near 
Saratoga ;  and,  hemmed  in  by  the  enemy,  who  refused  any 
encounter,  and  baffled  in  all  his  attempts  at  finding  a  path  of 
escape,  he  there  lingered  until  famine  compelled  him  to  capit- 
ulate. The  fortitude  of  the  British  army  during  this  melan- 
choly period  has  been  justly  eulogized  by  many  native 
historians,  but  I  prefer  quoting  the  testimony  of  a  foreign 
writer,  as  free  from  all  possibility  of  partiality.     Botta  says  :  — 

"  It  exceeds  the  power  of  words  to  describe  the  pitiable 
condition  to  which  the  British  army  was  now  reduced.  The 
troops  were  worn  down  by  a  series  of  toil,  privation,  sickness, 
and  desperate  fighting.  They  were  abandoned  by  the  Indians 
and  Canadians ;  and  the  effective  force  of  the  whole  army 
was  now  diminished  by  repeated  and  heavy  losses,  which  had 
principally  fallen  on  the  best  soldiers  and  the  most  distin- 
guished officers,  from  ten  thousand  combatants  to  less  than 
one  half  that  number.  Of  this  remnant  little  more  than 
three  thousand  were  English. 

"  In  these  circumstances,  and  thus  weakened,  they  were  in- 
vested by  an  army  of  four  times  their  own  number,  whose  posi- 
tion extended  three  parts  of  a  circle  round  them  ;  who  refused 
to  fight  them,  as  knowing  their  weakness,  and  who,  from  the 
nature  of  the  ground,  could  not  be  attacked  in  any  part.  In 
this  helpless  condition,  obliged  to  be  constantly  under  arms 
while  the  enemy's  cannon  played  on  every  part  of  their  camp 
and  even  the  American  rifle-balls  whistled  in  many  parts  of 
the  lines,  the  troops  of  Burgoyne  retained  their  customary 
firmness ;  and,  while  sinking  under  a  hard  necessity,  they 
showed  themselves  worthy  of  a  better  fate.  They  could  not 
be  reproached  with  an  action  or  a  word  which  betrayed  a 
want  of  temper  or  of  fortitude." 

At  length  the  13th  of  October  arrived,  and  as  no  prospect 
of  assistance  appeared  and  the  provisions  were  nearly  ex- 
hausted, Burgoyne,  by  the  unanimous  advice  of  a  council  of 
war,  sent  a  messenger  to  the  American  camp  to  treat  of  a 
convention. 

General  Gates,  in  the  first  instance,  demanded  that  the 
royal  army  should  surrender  prisoners  of  war.  He  also  pro- 
posed that  the  British  should  ground  their  arms.  Burgoyne 
replied,   "  This    article   is  inadmissible  in    every  extremity ; 


342  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [i777 

sooner  than  this  army  will  consent  to  ground  their  arms  in 
their  encampment,  they  will  rush  on  the  enemy,  determined 
to  take  no  quarter."  After  various  messages,  a  convention 
for  the  surrender  of  the  army  was  settled,  which  provided 
that  "  the  troops  under  General  Burgoyne  were  to  march  out 
of  their  camp  with  the  honors  of  war,  and  the  artillery  of  the 
entrenchments,  to  the  verge  of  the  river,  where  the  arms  and 
artillery  were  to  be  left.  The  arms  to  be  piled  by  word  of 
command  from  their  own  officers.  A  free  passage  was  to  be 
granted  to  the  army  under  Lieutenant-general  Burgoyne  to 
Great  Britain,  upon  condition  of  not  serving  again  in  North 
America  during  the  present  contest." 

The  articles  of  capitulation  were  settled  on  the  15th  of 
October ;  and  on  that  very  evening  a  messenger  arrived  from 
Clinton  with  an  account  of  his  successes,  and  with  the  tidings 
that  part  of  his  force  had  penetrated  as  far  as  Esopus,  within 
fifty  miles  of  Burgoyne's  camp.  But  it  was  too  late.  The 
public  faith  was  pledged ;  and  the  army  was,  indeed,  too 
debilitated  by  fatigue  and  hunger  to  resist  an  attack  if  made ; 
and  Gates  certainly  would  have  made  it,  if  the  convention  had 
been  broken  off.  Accordingly,  on  the  17th,  the  convention 
of  Saratoga  was  carried  into  effect.  By  this  convention 
5790  men  surrendered  themselves  as  prisoners.  The  sick 
and  wounded  left  in  the  camp  when  the  British  retreated  to 
Saratoga,  together  with  the  numbers  of  the  British,  German, 
and  Canadian  troops  who  were  killed,  wounded,  or  taken, 
and  who  had  deserted  in  the  preceding  part  of  the  expedition, 
were  reckoned  to  be  4689. 

The  British  sick  and  wounded  who  had  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  the  Americans  after  the  battle  of  the  7th  were 
treated  with  exemplary  humanity ;  and  when  the  convention 
was  executed,  General  Gates  showed  a  noble  delicacy  of  feel- 
ing which  deserves  the  highest  degree  of  honor.  Every  cir- 
cumstance was  avoided  which  could  give  the  appearance  of 
triumph.  The  American  troops  remained  within  their  lines 
until  the  British  had  piled  their  arms ;  and  when  this  was 
done,  the  vanquished  officers  and  soldiers  were  received  with 
friendly  kindness  by  their  victors,  and  their  immediate  wants 
were  promptly  and  liberally  supplied.  Discussions  and  dis- 
putes afterwards  arose  as  to  some  of  the  terms  of  the  con- 


1777]  BATTLE   OF   SARATOGA  343 

vention,  and  the  American  Congress  refused  for  a  long  time 
to  carry  into  effect  the  article  which  provided  for  the  return 
of  Burgoyne's  men  to  Europe ;  but  no  blame  was  imputable 
to  General  Gates  or  his  army,  who  showed  themselves  to  be 
generous  as  they  had  proved  themselves  to  be  brave. 

Gates,  after  the  victory,  immediately  despatched  Colonel 
Wilkinson  to  carry  the  happy  tidings  to  Congress.  On  being 
introduced  into  the  hall,  he  said :  "  The  whole  British  army 
has  laid  down  its  arms  at  Saratoga ;  our  own,  full  of  vigor  and 
courage,  expect  your  order.  It  is  for  your  wisdom  to  decide 
where  the  country  may  still  have  need  for  their  service." 
Honors  and  rewards  were  liberally  voted  by  the  Congress  to 
their  conquering  general  and  his  men  ;  "  and  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult" (says  Botta)  "to  describe  the  transports  of  joy  which 
the  news  of  this  event  excited  among  the  Americans.  They 
began  to  natter  themselves  with  a  still  more  happy  future. 
No  one  any  longer  felt  any  doubt  about  their  achieving  their 
independence.  All  hoped,  and  with  good  reason,  that  a  suc- 
cess of  this  importance  would  at  length  determine  France, 
and  the  other  European  powers  that  waited  for  her  example, 
to  declare  themselves  in  favor  of  America.  There  could  no 
longer  be  any  question  respecting  the  future ;  since  there  zvas 
no  longer  the  risk  of  espousing  the  cause  of  a  people  too  feeble 
to  defend  themselves." 

The  truth  of  this  was  soon  displayed  in  the  conduct  of 
France.  When  the  news  arrived  at  Paris  of  the  capture  of 
Ticonderoga  and  of  the  victorious  march  of  Burgoyne 
towards  Albany,  events  which  seemed  decisive  in  favor  of 
the  English,  instructions  had  been  immediately  despatched 
to  Nantes  and  the  other  ports  of  the  kingdom  that  no  Amer- 
ican privateers  should  be  suffered  to  enter  them  except  from 
indispensable  necessity,  as  to  repair  their  vessels,  to  obtain 
provisions,  or  to  escape  the  perils  of  the  sea.  The  American 
commissioners  at  Paris,  in  their  disgust  and  despair,  had 
almost  broken  off  all  negotiations  with  the  French  govern- 
ment ;  and  they  even  endeavored  to  open  communications 
with  the  British  ministry.  But  the  British  government,  elated 
with  the  first  successes  of  Burgoyne,  refused  to  listen  to  any 
overtures  for  accommodation.  But  when  the  news  of  Saratoga 
reached  Paris,  the  whole  scene  was  changed.     Franklin  and 


344  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1777 

his  brother  commissioners  found  all  their  difficulties  with  the 
French  government  vanish.  The  time  seemed  to  have  arrived 
for  the  house  of  Bourbon  to  take  a  full  revenge  for  all  its 
humiliations  and  losses  in  previous  wars.  In  December  a 
treaty  was  arranged,  and  formally  signed  in  the  February 
following,  by  which  France  acknowledged  the  Independent 
United  States  of  America.  This  was,  of  course,  tantamount  to 
a  declaration  of  war  with  England.  Spain  soon  followed 
France ;  and  before  long  Holland  took  the  same  course. 
Largely  aided  by  French  fleets  and  troops,  the  Americans 
vigorously  maintained  the  war  against  the  armies  which  Eng- 
land, in  spite  of  her  European  foes,  continued  to  send  across 
the  Atlantic.  But  the  struggle  was  too  unequal  to  be  main- 
tained by  this  country  for  many  years  ;  and  when  the  treaties 
of  1783  restored  peace  to  the  world,  the  independence  of  the 
United  States  was  reluctantly  recognized  by  their  ancient 
parent  and  recent  enemy,  England. 


Notes 

1  Written  in  185 1. 

2  These  remarks  were  written  in  May,  1851,  and  now,  in  May,  1852,  a 
powerful  squadron  of  American  war  steamers  has  been  sent  to  Japan,  for 
the  ostensible  purpose  of  securing  protection  for  the  crews  of  American 
vessels  shipwrecked  on  the  Japanese  coasts,  but  also  evidently  for  important 
ulterior  purposes. 

8  In  Lord  Albemarle's  "  Memoirs  of  the  Marquis  of  Rockingham  "  is  con- 
tained the  following  remarkable  state  paper,  drawn  up  by  King  George  III. 
himself,  respecting  the  plan  of  Burgoyne's  expedition.  The  original  is  in 
the  king's  own  hand. 

"REMARKS   ON   THE   CONDUCT   OF   THE   WAR   FROM   CANADA 

"  The  outlines  of  the  plan  seem  to  be  on  a  proper  foundation.  The  rank 
and  file  of  the  army  now  in  Canada  (including  the  nth  Regiment  of  British, 
M'Clean's  corps,  the  Brunswicks  and  Hanover)  amount  to  10,527 ;  add 
the  eleven  additional  companies  and  four  hundred  Hanover  Chasseurs,  the 
total  will  be  11,443. 

"  As  sickness  and  other  contingencies  must  be  expected,  I  should  think 
not  above  7000  effectives  can  be  spared  over  Lake  Champlain  ;  for  it  would 
be  highly  imprudent  to  run  any  risk  in  Canada. 

"  The  fixing  the  stations  of  those  left  in  the  provinces  may  not  be  quite 
right,  though  the  plan  proposed  may  be  recommended.  Indians  must  be 
employed,  and  this  measure  must  be  avowedly  directed,  and  Carleton  must 
be  in  the  strongest  manner  directed  that  the  Apollo  shall  be  ready  by  that 
day  to  receive  Burgoyne. 


1777]  BATTLE   OF   SARATOGA  345 

"  The  magazines  must  be  formed  with  the  greatest  expedition  at  Crown 
Point. 

"  If  possible,  possession  must  be  taken  of  Lake  George,  and  nothing  but 
an  absolute  impossibility  of  succeeding  in  this  can  be  an  excuse  for  pro- 
ceeding by  South  Bay  and  Skeenborough. 

"As  Sir  W.  Howe  does  not  think  of  acting  from  Rhode  Island  into  the 
Massachusets,  the  force  from  Canada  must  join  him  in  Albany. 

"  The  diversion  on  the  Mohawk  River  ought  at  least  to  be  strengthened 
by  the  addition  of  the  four  hundred  Hanover  Chasseurs. 

"  The  Ordnance  ought  to  furnish  a  complete  proportion  of  intrenching 
tools. 

"  The  provisions  ought  to  be  calculated  for  a  third  more  than  the  effective 
soldiery,  and  the  general  ordered  to  avoid  delivering  these  when  the  army 
can  be  subsisted  by  the  country.  Burgoyne  certainly  greatly  undervalues 
the  German  recruits. 

"The  idea  of  carrying  the  army  by  sea  to  Sir  W.  Howe  would  certainly 
require  the  leaving  a  much  larger  part  of  it  in  Canada,  as  in  that  case  the 
rebel  army  would  divide  that  province  from  the  immense  one  under  Sir 
W.  Howe.     I  greatly  dislike  this  last  idea." 


Synopsis  of  Events  between  the  Defeat  of  Burgoyne 
at  Saratoga,   1777,  and  the  Battle  of  Valmy,  1792 

1 78 1.  Surrender  of  Lord  Cornwallis  and  the  British  army 
to  Washington. 

1782.  Rodney's  victory  over  the  Spanish  fleet.      Unsuc- 
cessful siege  of  Gibraltar  by  the  Spaniards  and  French. 

1783.  End  of  the  American  war. 

1788.    The  States-General  are  convened  in  France:  begin- 
ning of  the  Revolution. 


346  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1792 


CHAPTER   XIV 

The  Battle  of  Valmy,  1792 

"  Purpurei  metuunt  tyranni 
Injurioso  ne  pede  proruas 
Stantem  columnam  ;  neu  populus  frequens 
Ad  arma  cessantes  ad  arma 
Concitet,  imperiumque  frangat." 

—  Horatius,  Od.  i.,  35. 

"  A  little  fire  is  quickly  trodden  out, 
Which,  being  suffered,  rivers  cannot  quench." 

—  Shakespeare. 

A  FEW  miles  distant  from  the  little  town  of  St.  Mene- 
hould,  in  the  northeast  of  France,  are  the  village  and 
hill  of  Valmy ;  and  near  the  crest  of  that  hill  a  simple 
monument  points  out  the  burial-place  of  the  heart  of  a  gen- 
eral of  the  French  republic  and  a  marshal  of  the  French 
empire. 

The  elder  Kellermann  (father  of  the  distinguished  officer 
of  that  name  whose  cavalry  charge  decided  the  battle  of  Ma- 
rengo) held  high  commands  in  the  French  armies  through- 
out the  wars  of  the  Convention,  the  Directory,  the  Consulate, 
and  the  Empire.  He  survived  those  wars  and  the  Empire 
itself,  dying  in  extreme  old  age  in  1820.  The  last  wish  of 
the  veteran  on  his  death-bed  was  that  his  heart  should  be 
deposited  in  the  battle-field  of  Valmy,  there  to  repose  among 
the  remains  of  his  old  companions  in  arms  who  had  fallen  at 
his  side  on  that  spot  twenty-eight  years  before,  on  the  memo- 
rable day  when  they  won  the  primal  victory  of  revolutionary 
France,  and  prevented  the  armies  of  Brunswick  and  the  emi- 
grant bands  of  Conde  from  marching  on  defenseless  Paris 
and  destroying  the  immature  democracy  in  its  cradle. 

The  Duke  of  Valmy  (for  Kellermann,  when  made  one  of 
Napoleon's  military  peers  in  1802,  took  his  title  from  this 


1792]  BATTLE   OF   VALMY  347 

same  battle-field)  had  participated,  during  his  long  and  active 
career,  in  the  gaining  of  many  a  victory  far  more  immediately 
dazzling  than  the  one  the  remembrance  of  which  he  thus 
cherished.  He  had  been  present  at  many  a  scene  of  car- 
nage, where  blood  flowed  in  deluges,  compared  with  which 
the  libations  of  slaughter  poured  out  at  Valmy  would  have 
seemed  scant  and  insignificant.  But  he  rightly  estimated 
the  paramount  importance  of  the  battle  with  which  he  thus 
wished  his  appellation  while  living,  and  his  memory  after  his 
death,  to  be  identified.  The  successful  resistance  which  the 
new  Carmagnole  levies,  and  the  disorganized  relics  of  the  old 
monarchy's  army,  then  opposed  to  the  combined  hosts  and 
chosen  leaders  of  Prussia,  Austria,  and  the  French  refugee 
noblesse,  determined  at  once  and  forever  the  belligerent  char- 
acter of  the  Revolution.  The  raw  artisans  and  tradesmen,  the 
clumsy  burghers,  the  base  mechanics  and  low  peasant  churls, 
as  it  had  been  the  fashion  to  term  the  middle  and  lower 
classes  in  France,  found  that  they  could  face  cannon-balls, 
pull  triggers,  and  cross  bayonets  without  having  been  drilled 
into  military  machines,  and  without  being  officered  by  scions 
of  noble  houses.  They  awoke  to  the  consciousness  of  their 
own  instinctive  soldiership.  They  at  once  acquired  confi- 
dence in  themselves  and  in  each  other ;  and  that  confidence 
soon  grew  into  a  spirit  of  unbounded  audacity  and  ambition. 
"  From  the  cannonade  of  Valmy  may  be  dated  the  com- 
mencement of  that  career  of  victory  which  carried  their 
armies  to  Vienna  and  the  Kremlin."     [Alison.] 

One  of  the  gravest  reflections  that  arise  from  the  con- 
templation of  the  civil  restlessness  and  military  enthusiasm 
which  the  close  of  the  last  century  saw  nationalized  in  France 
is  the  consideration  that  these  disturbing  influences  have  be- 
come perpetual.  No  settled  system  of  government  that  shall 
endure  from  generation  to  generation,  that  shall  be  proof 
against  corruption  and  popular  violence,  seems  capable  of 
taking  root  among  the  French.  And  every  revolutionary 
movement  in  Paris  thrills  throughout  the  rest  of  the  world. 
Even  the  successes  which  the  powers  allied  against  France 
gained  in  1814  and  181 5,  important  as  they  were,  could  not 
annul  the  effects  of  the  preceding  twenty-three  years  of  gen- 
eral convulsion  and  war. 


348  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1792 

In  1830  the  dynasty  which  foreign  bayonets  had  imposed 
on  France  was  shaken  off;  and  men  trembled  at  the  ex- 
pected outbreak  of  French  anarchy  and  the  dreaded  inroads 
of  French  ambition.  They  "  looked  forward  with  harassing 
anxiety  to  a  period  of  destruction  similar  to  that  which  the 
Roman  world  experienced  about  the  middle  of  the  third  cen- 
tury of  our  era."  Louis  Philippe  cajoled  revolution,  and 
then  strove  with  seeming  success  to  stifle  it.  But  in  spite  of 
Fieschi  laws,  in  spite  of  the  dazzle  of  Algerian  razzias  and 
Pyrenees-effacing  marriages,  in  spite  of  hundreds  of  armed 
forts  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  coercing  troops,  Revolu- 
tion lived  and  struggled  to  get  free.  The  old  Titan  spirit 
heaved  restlessly  beneath  "the  monarchy  based  on  repub- 
lican institutions."  At  last,  four  years  ago,  the  whole  fabric 
of  kingcraft  was  at  once  rent  and  scattered  to  the  winds  by 
the  uprising  of  the  Parisian  democracy ;  and  insurrections, 
barricades,  and  dethronements,  the  downfall  of  coronets  and 
crowns,  the  armed  collisions  of  parties,  systems,  and  popula- 
tions, became  the  commonplaces  of  recent  European  history. 

France  now  calls  herself  a  republic.  She  first  assumed 
that  title  on  the  20th  of  September,  1792,  on  the  very  day 
on  which  the  battle  of  Valmy  was  fought  and  won.  To  that 
battle  the  democratic  spirit  which  in  1848,  as  well  as  in  1792, 
proclaimed  the  republic  in  Paris,  owed  its  preservation,  and 
it  is  thence  that  the  imperishable  activity  of  its  principles 
may  be  dated. 

Far  different  seemed  the  prospects  of  democracy  in  Europe 
on  the  eve  of  that  battle ;  and  far  different  would  have  been 
the  present  position  and  influence  of  the  French  nation  if 
Brunswick's  columns  had  charged  with  more  boldness,  or 
the  lines  of  Dumouriez  resisted  with  less  firmness.  When 
France,  in  1792,  declared  war  with  the  great  powers  of 
Europe,  she  was  far  from  possessing  that  splendid  military 
organization  which  the  experience  of  a  few  revolutionary 
campaigns  taught  her  to  assume,  and  which  she  has  never 
abandoned.  The  army  of  the  old  monarchy  had,  during 
the  latter  part  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XV.,  sunk  into  gradual 
decay,  both  in  numerical  force  and  in  efficiency  of  equip- 
ment and  spirit.  The  laurels  gained  by  the  auxiliary  regi- 
ments which  Louis  XVI.  sent  to  the  American  war  did  but 


1792]  BATTLE  OF   VALMY  349 

little  to  restore  the  general  tone  of  the  army.  The  insub- 
ordination and  license  which  the  revolt  of  the  French  guards, 
and  the  participation  of  other  troops  in  many  of  the  first 
excesses  of  the  Revolution,  introduced  among  the  soldiery 
were  soon  rapidly  disseminated  through  all  the  ranks.  Under 
the  Legislative  Assembly  every  complaint  of  the  soldier 
against  his  officer,  however  frivolous  or  ill  founded,  was  lis- 
tened to  with  eagerness  and  investigated  with  partiality,  on 
the  principles  of  liberty  and  equality.  Discipline  accordingly 
became  more  and  more  relaxed ;  and  the  dissolution  of  sev- 
eral of  the  old  corps,  under  the  pretext  of  their  being  tainted 
with  an  aristocratic  feeling,  aggravated  the  confusion  and 
inefficiency  of  the  War  Department.  Many  of  the  most 
effective  regiments  during  the  last  period  of  the  monarchy 
had  consisted  of  foreigners.  These  had  either  been  slaugh- 
tered in  defense  of  the  throne  against  insurrections,  like  the 
Swiss ;  or  had  been  disbanded,  and  had  crossed  the  frontier 
to  recruit  the  forces  which  were  assembling  for  the  invasion 
of  France.  Above  all,  the  emigration  of  the  noblesse  had 
stripped  the  French  army  of  nearly  all  its  officers  of  high 
rank  and  of  the  greatest  portion  of  its  subalterns.  More 
than  twelve  thousand  of  the  high-born  youth  of  France,  who 
had  been  trained  to  regard  military  command  as  their  exclu- 
sive patrimony  and  to  whom  the  nation  had  been  accus- 
tomed to  look  up  as  its  natural  guides  and  champions  in  the 
storm  of  war,  were  now  marshaled  beneath  the  banner  of 
Conde  and  the  other  emigrant  princes,  for  the  overthrow  of 
the  French  armies  and  the  reduction  of  the  French  capital. 
Their  successors  in  the  French  regiments  and  brigades  had 
as  yet  acquired  neither  skill  nor  experience :  they  possessed 
neither  self-reliance  nor  the  respect  of  the  men  who  were 
under  them. 

Such  was  the  state  of  the  wrecks  of  the  old  army ;  but  the 
bulk  of  the  forces  with  which  France  began  the  war  con- 
sisted of  raw  insurrectionary  levies,  which  were  even  less 
to  be  depended  on.  The  Carmagnoles,  as  the  revolutionary 
volunteers  were  called,  flocked,  indeed,  readily  to  the  frontier 
from  every  department  when  the  war  was  proclaimed,  and 
the  fierce  leaders  of  the  Jacobins  shouted  that  the  country 
was  in  danger.     They  were  full  of  zeal  and  courage,  "  heated 


350  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1792 

and  excited  by  the  scenes  of  the  Revolution,  and  inflamed  by 
the  florid  eloquence,  the  songs,  dances,  and  signal  words  with 
which  it  had  been  celebrated."  But  they  were  utterly  undis- 
ciplined, and  turbulently  impatient  of  superior  authority  or 
systematical  control.  Many  ruffians,  also,  who  were  sullied 
with  participation  in  the  most  sanguinary  horrors  of  Paris, 
joined  the  camps  and  were  preeminent  alike  for  misconduct 
before  the  enemy  and  for  savage  insubordination  against 
their  own  officers.  On  one  occasion  during  the  campaign 
of  Valmy,  eight  battalions  of  federates,  intoxicated  with 
massacre  and  sedition,  joined  the  forces  under  Dumouriez, 
and  soon  threatened  to  uproot  all  discipline,  saying  openly 
that  the  ancient  officers  were  traitors,  and  that  it  was  neces- 
sary to  purge  the  army,  as  they  had  Paris,  of  its  aristocrats. 
Dumouriez  posted  these  battalions  apart  from  the  others, 
placed  a  strong  force  of  cavalry  behind  them  and  two  pieces 
of  cannon  on  their  flank.  Then,  affecting  to  review  them,  he 
halted  at  the  head  of  the  line,  surrounded  by  all  his  staff,  and 
an  escort  of  a  hundred  hussars.  "  Fellows,"  said  he,  "  for  I 
will  not  call  you  either  citizens  or  soldiers,  you  see  before  you 
this  artillery,  behind  you  this  cavalry ;  you  are  stained  with 
crimes,  and  I  do  not  tolerate  here  assassins  or  executioners. 
I  know  that  there  are  scoundrels  amongst  you  charged  to 
excite  you  to  crime.  Drive  them  from  amongst  you,  or 
denounce  them  to  me,  for  I  shall  hold  you  responsible  for 
their  conduct." 

One  of  our  recent  historians  of  the  Revolution  [Carlyle],  who 
narrates  this  incident,  thus  apostrophizes  the  French  general : 

"  Patience,  O  Dumouriez !  This  uncertain  heap  of  shriekers, 
mutineers,  were  they  once  drilled  and  inured,  will  become  a 
phalanxed  mass  of  fighters;  and  wheel  and  whirl  to  order 
swiftly,  like  the  wind  or  the  whirlwind ;  tanned  mustache- 
figures  ;  often  barefoot,  even  barebacked,  with  sinews  of  iron ; 
who  require  only  bread  and  gunpowder ;  very  sons  of  fire ; 
the  adroitest,  hastiest,  hottest,  ever  seen  perhaps  since  Attila's 
time." 

Such  phalanxed  masses  of  fighters  did  the  Carmagnoles 
ultimately  become;  but  France  ran  a  fearful  risk  in  being 
obliged  to  rely  on  them  when  the  process  of  their  transmuta- 
tion had  barely  commenced. 


1792]  BATTLE   OF  VALMY  351 

The  first  events,  indeed,  of  the  war  were  disastrous  and 
disgraceful  to  France,  even  beyond  what  might  have  been 
expected  from  the  chaotic  state  in  which  it  found  her  armies 
as  well  as  her  government.  In  the  hopes  of  profiting  by  the 
unprepared  state  of  Austria,  then  the  mistress  of  the  Nether- 
lands, the  French  opened  the  campaign  of  1792  by  an  invasion 
of  Flanders,  with  forces  whose  muster-rolls  showed  a  numeri- 
cally overwhelming  superiority  to  the  enemy,  and  seemed  to 
promise  a  speedy  conquest  of  that  old  battle-field  of  Europe. 
But  the  first  flash  of  an  Austrian  saber  or  the  first  sound  of 
an  Austrian  gun  was  enough  to  discomfit  the  French.  Their 
first  corps,  four  thousand  strong,  that  advanced  from  Lille 
across  the  frontier,  came  suddenly  upon  a  far  inferior  detach- 
ment of  the  Austrian  garrison  of  Tournay.  Not  a  shot  was 
fired,  not  a  bayonet  leveled.  With  one  simultaneous  cry  of 
panic  the  French  broke  and  ran  headlong  back  to  Lille,  where 
they  completed  the  specimen  of  insubordination  which  they 
had  given  in  the  field  by  murdering  their  general  and  several 
of  their  chief  officers.  On  the  same  day,  another  division 
under  Biron,  mustering  ten  thousand  sabers  and  bayonets, 
saw  a  few  Austrian  skirmishers  reconnoitering  their  position. 
The  French  advanced  posts  had  scarcely  given  and  received 
a  volley,  and  only  a  few  balls  from  the  enemy's  field-pieces 
had  fallen  among  the  lines,  when  two  regiments  of  French 
dragoons  raised  the  cry,  "  We  are  betrayed,"  galloped  off, 
and  were  followed  in  disgraceful  rout  by  the  rest  of  the  whole 
army.  Similar  panics,  or  repulses  almost  equally  discreditable, 
occurred  whenever  Rochambeau,  or  Luckner,  or  La  Fayette, 
the  earliest  French  generals  in  the  war,  brought  their  troops 
into  the  presence  of  the  enemy. 

Meanwhile,  the  allied  sovereigns  had  gradually  collected  on 
the  Rhine  a  veteran  and  finely  disciplined  army  for  the  in- 
vasion of  France,  which  for  numbers,  equipment,  and  martial 
renown,  both  of  generals  and  men,  was  equal  to  any  that 
Germany  had  ever  sent  forth  to  conquer.  Their  design  was 
to  strike  boldly  and  decisively  at  the  heart  of  France,  and, 
penetrating  the  country  through  the  Ardennes,  to  proceed  by 
Chalons  upon  Paris.  The  obstacles  that  lay  in  their  way 
seemed  insignificant.  The  disorder  and  imbecility  of  the 
French  armies  had  been  even  augmented  by  the  forced  flight 


352  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1792 

of  La  Fayette  and  a  sudden  change  of  generals.  The  only 
troops  posted  on  or  near  the  track  by  which  the  Allies  were 
about  to  advance  were  the  twenty-three  thousand  men  at 
Sedan,  whom  La  Fayette  had  commanded,  and  a  corps  of 
twenty  thousand  near  Metz,  the  command  of  which  had  just 
been  transferred  from  Luckner  to  Kellermann.  There  were 
only  three  fortresses  which  it  was  necessary  for  the  Allies 
to  capture  or  mask  —  Sedan,  Longwy,  and  Verdun.  The 
defenses  and  stores  of  these  three  were  known  to  be 
wretchedly  dismantled  and  insufficient ;  and  when  once  these 
feeble  barriers  were  overcome  and  Chalons  reached,  a  fertile 
and  unprotected  country  seemed  to  invite  the  invaders  to  that 
"military  promenade  to  Paris"  which  they  gaily  talked  of 
accomplishing. 

At  the  end  of  July  the  allied  army,  having  completed  all 
preparations  for  the  campaign,  broke  up  from  its  cantonments 
and,  marching  from  Luxemburg  upon  Longwy,  crossed  the 
French  frontier.  Sixty  thousand  Prussians,  trained  in  the 
school,  and  many  of  them  under  the  eye,  of  the  Great  Fred- 
erick, heirs  of  the  glories  of  the  Seven  Years'  war,  and  uni- 
versally esteemed  the  best  troops  in  Europe,  marched  in  one 
column  against  the  central  point  of  attack.  Forty-five  thou- 
sand Austrians,  the  greater  part  of  whom  were  picked  troops 
and  had  served  in  the  recent  Turkish  war,  supplied  two 
formidable  corps  that  supported  the  flanks  of  the  Prussians. 
There  was  also  a  powerful  body  of  Hessians,  and  leagued 
with  the  Germans  against  the  Parisian  democracy  came  fifteen 
thousand  of  the  noblest  and  bravest  among  the  sons  of  France. 
In  these  corps  of  emigrants,  many  of  the  highest-born  of  the 
French  nobility,  scions  of  houses  whose  chivalric  trophies 
had  for  centuries  filled  Europe  with  renown,  served  as  rank 
and  file.  They  looked  on  the  road  to  Paris  as  the  path  which 
they  were  to  carve  out  by  their  swords  to  victory,  to  honor, 
to  the  rescue  of  their  king,  to  reunion  with  their  families,  to 
the  recovery  of  their  patrimony,  and  to  the  restoration  of  their 
order. 

Over  this  imposing  army  the  allied  sovereigns  placed  as 
generalissimo  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  one  of  the  minor 
reigning  princes  of  Germany,  a  statesman  of  no  mean  capac- 
ity, and  who  had  acquired  in  the  Seven  Years'  war  a  military 


1792]  BATTLE   OF   VALMY  353 

reputation  second  only  to  that  of  the  Great  Frederick  himself. 
He  had  been  deputed  a  few  years  before  to  quell  the  popular 
movements  which  then  took  place  in  Holland ;  and  he  had 
put  down  the  attempted  revolution  in  that  country  with  a 
promptitude  and  completeness  which  appeared  to  augur  equal 
success  to  the  army  that  now  marched  under  his  orders  on  a 
similar  mission  into  France. 

Moving  majestically  forward,  with  leisurely  deliberation 
that  seemed  to  show  the  consciousness  of  superior  strength 
and  a  steady  purpose  of  doing  their  work  thoroughly,  the 
Allies  appeared  before  Longwy  on  the  20th  of  August,  and 
the  dispirited  and  dependent  garrison  opened  the  gates  of 
that  fortress  to  them  after  the  first  shower  of  bombs.  On 
the  2d  of  September  the  still  more  important  stronghold  of 
Verdun  capitulated  after  scarcely  the  shadow  of  resistance. 

Brunswick's  superior  force  was  now  interposed  between 
Kellermann's  troops  on  the  left,  and  the  other  French  army 
near  Sedan,  which  La  Fayette's  flight  had,  for  the  time,  left 
destitute  of  a  commander.  It  was  in  the  power  of  the  Ger- 
man general,  by  striking  with  an  overwhelming  mass  to  the 
right  and  left,  to  crush  in  succession  each  of  these  weak 
armies,  and  the  Allies  might  then  have  marched  irresistible 
and  unresisted  upon  Paris.  But  at  this  crisis  Dumouriez,  the 
new  commander-in-chief  of  the  French,  arrived  at  the  camp 
near  Sedan,  and  commenced  a  series  of  movements  by  which 
he  reunited  the  dispersed  and  disorganized  forces  of  his 
country,  checked  the  Prussian  columns  at  the  very  moment 
when  the  last  obstacles  to  their  triumph  seemed  to  have 
given  way,  and  finally  rolled  back  the  tide  of  invasion  far 
across  the  enemy's  frontier. 

The  French  fortresses  had  fallen ;  but  nature  herself  still 
offered  to  brave  and  vigorous  defenders  of  the  land  the  means 
of  opposing  a  barrier  to  the  progress  of  the  Allies.  A  ridge 
of  broken  ground,  called  the  Argonne,  extends  from  the 
vicinity  of  Sedan  towards  the  southwest  for  about  fifteen  or 
sixteen  leagues.  The  country  of  L' Argonne  has  now  been 
cleared  and  drained;  but  in  1792  it  was  thickly  wooded  and 
the  lower  portions  of  its  unequal  surface  were  filled  with 
rivulets  and  marshes.  It  thus  presented  a  natural  barrier  of 
from  four  to  five  leagues  broad,  which  was  absolutely  impene- 


354  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1792 

trable  to  an  army,  except  by  a  few  defiles  such  as  an  inferiof 
force  might  easily  fortify  and  defend.  Dumouriez  succeeded 
in  marching  his  army  down  from  Sedan  behind  the  Argonne, 
and  in  occupying  its  passes,  while  the  Prussians  still  lingered 
on  the  northeastern  side  of  the  forest  line.  Ordering  Keller- 
mann  to  wheel  round  from  Metz  to  St.  Menehould,  and  the 
reenforcements  from  the  interior  and  extreme  north  also  to 
concentrate  at  that  spot,  Dumouriez  trusted  to  assemble  a 
powerful  force  in  the  rear  of  the  southwest  extremity  of  the 
Argonne,  while  with  the  twenty-five  thousand  men  under  his 
immediate  command  he  held  the  enemy  at  bay  before  the 
passes  or  forced  him  to  a  long  circumvolution  round  one 
extremity  of  the  forest  ridge,  during  which  favorable  oppor- 
tunities of  assailing  his  flank  were  almost  certain  to  occur. 
Dumouriez  fortified  the  principal  defiles,  and  boasted  of  the 
Thermopylae  which  he  had  found  for  the  invaders ;  but  the 
simile  was  nearly  rendered  fatally  complete  for  the  defending 
force.  A  pass  which  was  thought  of  inferior  importance 
had  been  but  slightly  manned,  and  an  Austrian  corps  under 
Clairfayt  forced  it  after  some  sharp  fighting.  Dumouriez 
with  great  difficulty  saved  himself  from  being  enveloped  and 
destroyed  by  the  hostile  columns  that  now  pushed  through 
the  forest.  But  instead  of  despairing  at  the  failure  of  his 
plans,  and  falling  back  into  the  interior,  to  be  completely 
severed  from  Kellermann's  army,  to  be  hunted  as  a  fugitive 
under  the  walls  of  Paris  by  the  victorious  Germans,  and  to 
lose  all  chance  of  ever  rallying  his  dispirited  troops,  he  re- 
solved to  cling  to  the  difficult  country  in  which  the  armies 
still  were  grouped,  to  force  a  junction  with  Kellermann,  and 
so  to  place  himself  at  the  head  of  a  force  which  the  invaders 
would  not  dare  to  disregard,  and  by  which  he  might  drag 
them  back  from  the  advance  on  Paris,  which  he  had  not  been 
able  to  bar.  Accordingly,  by  a  rapid  movement  to  the  south, 
during  which,  in  his  own  words,  "  France  was  within  a  hair- 
breadth of  destruction,"  and  after,  with  difficulty,  checking 
several  panics  of  his  troops,  in  which  they  ran  by  thousands 
at  the  sight  of  a  few  Prussian  hussars,  Dumouriez  succeeded 
in  establishing  his  headquarters  in  a  strong  position  at  St. 
Menehould,  protected  by  the  marshes  and  shallows  of  the 
rivers  Aisne  and  Aube,  beyond  which,  to  the  northwest,  rose 


1792]  BATTLE   OF   VALMY  355 

a  firm  and  elevated  plateau,  called  Dampierre's  Camp,  admir- 
ably situated  for  commanding  the  road  by  Chalons  to  Paris, 
and  where  he  intended  to  post  Kellermann's  army  so  soon  as 
it  came  up.1 

The  news  of  the  retreat  of  Dumouriez  from  the  Argonne 
passes,  and  of  the  panic  flight  of  some  divisions  of  his  troops, 
spread  rapidly  throughout  the  country  ;  and  Kellermann,  who 
believed  that  his  comrade's  army  had  been  annihilated,  and 
feared  to  fall  among  the  victorious  masses  of  the  Prussians, 
had  halted  on  his  march  from  Metz  when  almost  close  to  St. 
Menehould.  He  had  actually  commenced  a  retrograde  move- 
ment, when  couriers  from  his  commander-in-chief  checked 
him  from  that  fatal  course ;  and  then  continuing  to  wheel 
round  the  rear  and  left  flank  of  the  troops  at  St.  Menehould, 
Kellermann,  with  twenty  thousand  of  the  army  of  Metz  and 
some  thousands  of  volunteers  who  had  joined  him  in  the  march, 
made  his  appearance  to  the  west  of  Dumouriez,  on  the  very 
evening  when  Westerman  and  Thouvenot,  two  of  the  staff- 
officers  of  Dumouriez,  galloped  in  with  the  tidings  that  Bruns- 
wick's army  had  come  through  the  upper  passes  of  the  Argonne 
in  full  force  and  was  deploying  on  the  heights  of  La  Lune, 
a  chain  of  eminences  that  stretch  obliquely  from  southwest 
to  northeast,  opposite  the  high  ground  which  Dumouriez  held, 
and  also  opposite,  but  at  a  short  distance  from,  the  position 
which  Kellermann  was  designed  to  occupy. 

The  Allies  were  now,  in  fact,  nearer  to  Paris  than  were  the 
French  troops  themselves ;  but,  as  Dumouriez  had  foreseen, 
Brunswick  deemed  it  unsafe  to  march  upon  the  capital  with 
so  large  a  hostile  force  left  in  his  rear  between  his  advancing 
columns  and  his  base  of  operations.  The  young  king  of 
Prussia,  who  was  in  the  allied  camp,  and  the  emigrant  princes 
eagerly  advocated  an  instant  attack  upon  the  nearest  French 
general.  Kellermann  had  laid  himself  unnecessarily  open  by 
advancing  beyond  Dampierre's  Camp,  which  Dumouriez  had 
designed  for  him,  and  moving  forward  across  the  Aube  to  the 
plateau  of  Valmy  —  a  post  inferior  in  strength  and  space  to 
that  which  he  had  left,  and  which  brought  him  close  upon 
the  Prussian  lines,  leaving  him  separated  by  a  dangerous 
interval  from  the  troops  under  Dumouriez  himself.  It  seemed 
easy  for  the  Prussian  army  to  overwhelm  him  while  thus  iso- 


356  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1792 

lated,  and  then  they  might  surround  and  crush  Dumouriez  at 
their  leisure. 

Accordingly,  the  right  wing  of  the  allied  army  moved  for- 
ward, in  the  gray  of  the  morning  of  the  20th  of  September, 
to  gain  Kellermann's  left  flank  and  rear  and  cut  him  off  from 
retreat  upon  Chalons ;  while  the  rest  of  the  army,  moving 
from  the  heights  of  La  Lune,  which  here  converge  semicir- 
cularly  round  the  plateau  of  Valmy,  were  to  assail  his  position 
in  front  and  interpose  between  him  and  Dumouriez.  An 
unexpected  collision  between  some  of  the  advanced  cavalry 
on  each  side  in  the  low  ground  warned  Kellermann  of  the 
enemy's  approach.  Dumouriez  had  not  been  unobservant  of 
the  danger  of  his  comrade,  thus  isolated  and  involved,  and 
he  had  ordered  up  troops  to  support  Kellermann  on  either 
flank  in  the  event  of  his  being  attacked.  These  troops,  how- 
ever, moved  forward  slowly ;  and  Kellermann's  army,  ranged 
on  the  plateau  of  Valmy,  "  projected  like  a  cape  into  the  midst 
of  the  lines  of  the  Prussian  bayonets."  A  thick  autumnal  mist 
floated  in  waves  of  vapor  over  the  plains  and  ravines  that  lay 
between  the  two  armies,  leaving  only  the  crests  and  peaks  of 
the  hills  glittering  in  the  early  light.  About  ten  o'clock  the 
fog  began  to  clear  off,  and  then  the  French  from  their  prom- 
ontory saw  emerging  from  the  white  wreaths  of  mist,  and 
glittering  in  the  sunshine,  the  countless  Prussian  cavalry  which 
were  to  envelop  them  as  in  a  net  if  once  driven  from  their 
position,  the  solid  columns  of  the  infantry  that  moved  forward 
as  if  animated  by  a  single  will,  the  bristling  batteries  of  the 
artillery,  and  the  glancing  clouds  of  the  Austrian  light  troops, 
fresh  from  their  contests  with  the  Spahis  of  the  East. 

The  best  and  bravest  of  the  French  must  have  beheld  this 
spectacle  with  secret  apprehension  and  awe.  However  bold 
and  resolute  a  man  may  be  in  the  discharge  of  duty,  it  is  an 
anxious  and  fearful  thing  to  be  called  on  to  encounter  danger 
among  comrades  of  whose  steadiness  you  can  feel  no  cer- 
tainty. Each  soldier  of  Kellermann's  army  must  have  remem- 
bered the  series  of  panic  routs  which  had  hitherto  invariably 
taken  place  on  the  French  side  during  the  war,  and  must 
have  cast  restless  glances  to  the  right  and  left,  to  see  if  any 
symptoms  of  wavering  began  to  show  themselves,  and  to  cal- 
culate how  long  it  was  likely  to  be  before  a  general  rush  of 


1792]  BATTLE   OF   VALMY  357 

his  comrades  to  the  rear  would  either  hurry  him  off  with  in- 
voluntary disgrace,  or  leave  him  alone  and  helpless,  to  be  cut 
down  by  assailing  multitudes. 

On  that  very  morning,  and  at  the  selfsame  hour  in  which 
the  allied  forces  and  the  emigrants  began  to  descend  from 
La  Lune  to  the  attack  of  Valmy,  and  while  the  cannonade 
was  opening  between  the  Prussian  and  the  revolutionary 
batteries,  the  debate  in  the  National  Convention  at  Paris 
commenced  on  the  proposal  to  proclaim  France  a  republic. 

The  old  monarchy  had  little  chance  of  support  in  the  hall 
of  the  Convention ;  but  if  its  more  effective  advocates  at 
Valmy  had  triumphed,  there  were  yet  the  elements  existing 
in  France  for  a  permanent  revival  of  the  better  part  of  the 
ancient  institutions,  and  for  substituting  Reform  for  Revolu- 
tion. Only  a  few  weeks  before,  numerously  signed  addresses 
from  the  middle  classes  in  Paris,  Rouen,  and  other  large  cities 
had  been  presented  to  the  king,  expressive  of  their  horror  of 
the  anarchists,  and  their  readiness  to  uphold  the  rights  of 
the  crown  together  with  the  liberties  of  the  subject.  And 
an  armed  resistance  to  the  authority  of  the  Convention,  and 
in  favor  of  the  king,  was  in  reality  at  this  time  being  actively 
organized  in  La  Vendue  and  Brittany,  the  importance  of 
which  may  be  estimated  from  the  formidable  opposition 
which  the  Royalists  of  these  provinces  made  to  the  Republi- 
can party  at  a  later  period,  and  under  much  more  disadvan- 
tageous circumstances.  It  is  a  fact  peculiarly  illustrative  of 
the  importance  of  the  battle  of  Valmy  that  "during  the 
summer  of  1792  the  gentlemen  of  Brittany  entered  into  an 
extensive  association  for  the  purpose  of  rescuing  the  country 
from  the  oppressive  yoke  which  had  been  imposed  by  the 
Parisian  demagogues.  At  the  head  of  the  whole  was  the 
Marquis  de  la  Rouarie,  one  of  those  remarkable  men  who 
rise  into  preeminence  during  the  stormy  days  of  a  revolution, 
from  conscious  ability  to  direct  its  current.  Ardent,  impetu- 
ous, and  enthusiastic,  he  was  first  distinguished  in  the  Amer- 
ican war,  when  the  intrepidity  of  his  conduct  attracted  the 
admiration  of  the  Republican  troops,  and  the  same  quality 
rendered  him  at  first  an  ardent  supporter  of  the  Revolution 
in  France ;  but  when  the  atrocities  of  the  people  began,  he 
espoused  with  equal  warmth  the  opposite  side,  and  used  the 


358  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1792 

utmost  efforts  to  raise  the  noblesse  of  Brittany  against  the 
plebeian  yoke  which  had  been  imposed  upon  them  by  the 
National  Assembly.  He  submitted  his  plan  to  the  Count 
d'Artois,  and  had  organized  one  so  extensive  as  would  have 
proved  extremely  formidable  to  the  Convention  if  the  retreat 
of  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  in  September,  1792,  had  not 
damped  the  ardor  of  the  whole  of  the  west  of  France,  then 
ready  to  break  out  into  insurrection."     [Alison.] 

And  it  was  not  only  among  the  zealots  of  the  old  monarchy 
that  the  cause  of  the  king  would  then  have  found  friends. 
The  ineffable  atrocities  of  the  September  massacres  had  just 
occurred,  and  the  reaction  produced  by  them  among  thou- 
sands who  had  previously  been  active  on  the  ultra-democratic 
side  was  fresh  and  powerful.  The  nobility  had  not  yet  been 
made  utter  aliens  in  the  eyes  of  the  nation  by  long  expatria- 
tion and  civil  war.  There  was  not  yet  a  generation  of  youth 
educated  in  Revolutionary  principles  and  knowing  no  worship 
save  that  of  military  glory.  Louis  XVI.  was  just  and  humane, 
and  deeply  sensible  of  the  necessity  of  a  gradual  extension 
of  political  rights  among  all  classes  of  his  subjects.  The 
Bourbon  throne,  if  rescued  in  1792,  would  have  had  chances 
of  stability  such  as  did  not  exist  for  it  in  18 14  and  seem 
never  likely  to  be  found  again  in  France. 

Serving  under  Kellermann  on  that  day  was  one  who  expe- 
rienced, perhaps  the  most  deeply  of  all  men,  the  changes  for 
good  and  for  evil  which  the  French  Revolution  has  produced. 
He  who,  in  his  second  exile,  bore  the  name  of  the  Count  de 
Neuilly  in  this  country,  and  who  lately  was  Louis  Philippe, 
king  of  the  French,  figured  in  the  French  lines  at  Valmy  as 
a  young  and  gallant  officer,  cool  and  sagacious  beyond  his 
years,  and  trusted  accordingly  by  Kellermann  and  Dumou- 
riez  with  an  important  station  in  the  national  army.  The 
Due  de  Chartres  (the  title  he  then  bore)  commanded  the 
French  right,  General  Valence  was  on  the  left,  and  Keller- 
mann himself  took  his  post  in  the  center,  which  was  the 
strength  and  key  of  his  position. 

Besides  these  celebrated  men  who  were  in  the  French 
army,  and  besides  the  king  of  Prussia,  the  Duke  of  Bruns- 
wick, and  other  men  of  rank  and  power  who  were  in  the  lines 
of  the  Allies,  there  was  an  individual  present  at  the  battle  of 


1792]  BATTLE   OF  VALMY  359 

Valmy,  of  little  political  note,  but  who  has  exercised,  and 
exercises,  a  greater  influence  over  the  human  mind,  and  whose 
fame  is  more  widely  spread  than  that  of  either  duke  or  gen- 
eral or  king.  This  was  the  German  poet  Goethe,  who  had, 
out  of  curiosity,  accompanied  the  allied  army  on  its  march 
into  France  as  a  mere  spectator.  He  has  given  us  a  curious 
record  of  the  sensations  which  he  experienced  during  the 
cannonade.  It  must  be  remembered  that  many  thousands 
in  the  French  ranks  then,  like  Goethe,  felt  the  "cannon  fever" 
for  the  first  time.     The  German  poet  says  :  — 

"I  had  heard  so  much  of  the  cannon  fever  that  I  wanted 
to  know  what  kind  of  thing  it  was.  Ennui  and  a  spirit 
which  every  kind  of  danger  excites  to  daring — nay,  even  to 
rashness  —  induced  me  to  ride  up  quite  coolly  to  the  outwork 
of  La  Lune.  This  was  again  occupied  by  our  people ;  but 
it  presented  the  wildest  aspect.  The  roofs  were  shot  to 
pieces ;  the  corn-shocks  scattered  about,  the  bodies  of  men 
mortally  wounded  stretched  upon  them  here  and  there ;  and 
occasionally  a  spent  cannon-ball  fell  and  rattled  among  the 
ruins  of  the  tile  roofs. 

"  Quite  alone,  and  left  to  myself,  I  rode  away  on  the 
heights  to  the  left,  and  could  plainly  survey  the  favorable 
position  of  the  French ;  they  were  standing  in  the  form  of  a 
semicircle  in  the  greatest  quiet  and  security,  Kellermann, 
then  on  the  left  wing,  being  the  easiest  to  reach. 

"  I  fell  in  with  good  company  on  the  way,  officers  of  my 
acquaintance,  belonging  to  the  general  staff  and  the  regi- 
ment, greatly  surprised  to  find  me  here.  They  wanted  to 
take  me  back  again  with  them ;  but  I  spoke  to  them  of  par- 
ticular objects  I  had  in  view,  and  they  left  me  without  further 
dissuasion,  to  my  well-known  singular  caprice. 

"  I  had  now  arrived  quite  in  the  region  where  the  balls 
were  playing  across  me  :  the  sound  of  them  is  curious  enough, 
as  if  it  were  composed  of  the  humming  of  tops,  the  gurgling 
of  water,  and  the  whistling  of  birds.  They  were  less  danger- 
ous by  reason  of  the  wetness  of  the  ground :  wherever  one 
fell,  it  stuck  fast.  And  thus  my  foolish  experimental  ride 
was  secured  against  the  danger,  at  least,  of  the  balls 
rebounding. 

"  In  the  midst  of  these  circumstances,  I  was  soon  able  to 


360  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1792 

remark  that  something  unusual  was  taking  place  within  me. 
I  paid  close  attention  to  it,  and  still  the  sensation  can  be 
described  only  by  similitude.  It  appeared  as  if  you  were  in 
some  extremely  hot  place,  and,  at  the  same  time,  quite  pene- 
trated by  the  heat  of  it,  so  that  you  feel  yourself,  as  it  were, 
quite  one  with  the  element  in  which  you  are.  The  eyes  lose 
nothing  of  their  strength  or  clearness;  but  it  is  as  if  the 
world  had  a  kind  of  brown-red  tint,  which  makes  the  situa- 
tion, as  well  as  the  surrounding  objects,  more  impressive. 
I  was  unable  to  perceive  any  agitation  of  the  blood ;  but 
everything  seemed  rather  to  be  swallowed  up  in  the  glow  of 
which  I  speak.  From  this,  then,  it  is  clear  in  what  sense 
this  condition  can  be  called  a  fever.  It  is  remarkable,  how- 
ever, that  the  horrible  uneasy  feeling  arising  from  it  is  pro- 
duced in  us  solely  through  the  ears ;  for  the  cannon  thunder, 
the  howling  and  crashing  of  the  balls  through  the  air,  is  the 
real  cause  of  these  sensations. 

"After  I  had  ridden  back  and  was  in  perfect  security, 
I  remarked  with  surprise  that  the  glow  was  completely 
extinguished  and  not  the  slightest  feverish  agitation  was 
left  behind.  On  the  whole,  this  condition  is  one  of  the  least 
desirable ;  as,  indeed,  among  my  dear  and  noble  comrades  I 
found  scarcely  one  who  expressed  a  really  passionate  desire 
to  try  it." 

Contrary  to  the  expectations  of  both  friends  and  foes,  the 
French  infantry  held  their  ground  steadily  under  the  fire  of 
the  Prussian  guns,  which  thundered  on  them  from  La  Lune ; 
and  their  own  artillery  replied  with  equal  spirit  and  greater 
effect  on  the  denser  masses  of  the  allied  army.  Thinking 
that  the  Prussians  were  slackening  in  their  fire,  Kellermann 
formed  a  column  in  charging  order,  and  dashed  down  into 
the  valley,  in  the  hopes  of  capturing  some  of  the  nearest 
guns  of  the  enemy.  A  masked  battery  opened  its  fire  on 
the  French  column,  and  drove  it  back  in  disorder,  Keller- 
mann having  his  horse  shot  under  him  and  being  with  diffi- 
culty carried  off  by  his  men.  The  Prussian  columns  now 
advanced  in  turn.  The  French  artillerymen  began  to  waver 
and  desert  their  posts,  but  were  rallied  by  the  efforts  and 
example  of  their  officers ;  and  Kellermann,  reorganizing  the 
line  of  his  infantry,  took  his  station  in  the  ranks  on  foot,  and 


1792]  BATTLE   OF   VALMY  36 1 

called  out  to  his  men  to  let  the  enemy  come  close  up  and 
then  to  charge  them  with  the  bayonet.  The  troops  caught 
the  enthusiasm  of  their  general,  and  a  cheerful  shout  of 
Vive  la  nation  !  taken  by  one  battalion  from  another,  pealed 
across  the  valley  to  the  assailants.  The  Prussians  flinched 
from  a  charge  up-hill  against  a  force  that  seemed  so  resolute 
and  formidable ;  they  halted  for  a  while  in  the  hollow,  and 
then  slowly  retreated  up  their  own  side  of  the  valley. 

Indignant  at  being  thus  repulsed  by  such  a  foe,  the  king 
of  Prussia  formed  the  flower  of  his  men  in  person,  and,  riding 
along  the  column,  bitterly  reproached  them  with  letting  their 
standard  be  thus  humiliated.  Then  he  led  them  on  again  to 
the  attack,  marching  in  the  front  line,  and  seeing  his  staff 
mowed  down  around  him  by  the  deadly  fire  which  the 
French  artillery  reopened.  But  the  troops  sent  by  Dumou- 
riez  were  now  cooperating  effectually  with  Kellermann ;  and 
that  general's  own  men,  flushed  by  success,  presented  a 
firmer  front  than  ever.  Again  the  Prussians  retreated,  leav- 
ing eight  hundred  dead  behind,  and  at  nightfall  the  French 
remained  victors  on  the  heights  of  Valmy. 

All  hopes  of  crushing  the  revolutionary  armies  and  of  the 
promenade  to  Paris  had  now  vanished,  though  Brunswick 
lingered  long  in  the  Argonne,  till  distress  and  sickness  wasted 
away  his  once  splendid  force,  and  finally  but  a  mere  wreck 
of  it  recrossed  the  frontier.  France,  meanwhile,  felt  that  she 
possessed  a  giant's  strength,  and  like  a  giant  did  she  use  it. 
Before  the  close  of  that  year,  all  Belgium  obeyed  the  National 
Convention  at  Paris,  and  the  kings  of  Europe,  after  the  lapse 
of  eighteen  centuries,  trembled  once  more  before  a  conquer- 
ing military  republic. 

Goethe's  description  of  the  cannonade  has  been  quoted. 
His  observation  to  his  comrades  in  the  camp  of  the  Allies,  at 
the  end  of  the  battle,  deserves  citation  also.  It  shows  that 
the  poet  felt  (and,  probably,  he  alone  of  the  thousands  there 
assembled  felt)  the  full  importance  of  that  day.  He  describes 
the  consternation  and  the  change  of  demeanor  which  he 
observed  among  his  Prussian  friends  that  evening.  He  tells 
us  that  "  most  of  them  were  silent ;  and,  in  fact,  the  power  of 
reflection  and  judgment  was  wanting  to  all.  At  last  I  was 
called  upon  to  say  what  I  thought  of  the  engagement ;  for  I 


362  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1792 

had  been  in  the  habit  of  enlivening  and  amusing  the  troop 
with  short  sayings.  This  time  I  said  :  '  From  this  place,  and 
from  this  day  forth,  commences  a  new  era  in  the  world's  his- 
tory ;  and  yon  can  all  say  that  you  were  present  at  its  birth.'  " 

1  Note.  —  Some  late  writers  represent  that  Brunswick  did  not  wish  to 
check  Dumouriez.  There  is  no  sufficient  authority  for  this  insinuation, 
which  seems  to  have  been  first  prompted  by  a  desire  to  soothe  the  wounded 
military  pride  of  the  Prussians. 

Synopsis   of    Events   between   the    Battle    of   Valmy, 
1792,  and  the  Battle  of  Waterloo,  18 15 

1793.  Trial  and  execution  of  Louis  XVI.  at  Paris.  Eng- 
land and  Spain  declare  war  against  France.  Royalist  war  in 
La  Vendee.     Second  invasion  of  France  by  the  Allies. 

1794.  Lord  Howe's  victory  over  the  French  fleet.  Final 
partition  of  Poland  by  Russia,  Prussia,  and  Austria. 

1795.  The  French  armies  under  Pichegru  conquer  Holland. 
Cessation  of  the  war  in  La  Vendee. 

1796.  Bonaparte  commands  the  French  army  of  Italy  and 
gains  repeated  victories  over  the  Austrians. 

1797.  Victory  of  Jervis,  off  Cape  St.  Vincent.  Peace  of 
Campo  Formio  between  France  and  Austria.  Defeat  of  the 
Dutch  off  Camperdown  by  Admiral  Duncan. 

1798.  Rebellion  in  Ireland.  Expedition  of  the  French 
under  Bonaparte  to  Egypt.  Lord  Nelson  destroys  the  French 
fleet  at  the  battle  of  the  Nile. 

1799.  Renewal  of  the  war  between  Austria  and  France. 
The  Russian  emperor  sends  an  army  in  aid  of  Austria,  under 
Suwarrow.  The  French  are  repeatedly  defeated  in  Italy. 
Bonaparte  returns  from  Egypt  and  makes  himself  First  Con- 
sul of  France.  Massena  wins  the  battle  of  Zurich.  The 
Russian  emperor  makes  peace  with  France. 

1800.  Bonaparte  passes  the  Alps  and  defeats  the  Austrians 
at  Marengo.     Moreau  wins  the  battle  of  Hohenlinden. 

1 80 1.  Treaty  of  Luneville  between  France  and  Austria. 
The  battle  of  Copenhagen. 

1802.  Peace  of  Amiens. 

1803.  War  between  England  and  France  renewed. 

1804.  Napoleon  Bonaparte  is  made  emperor  of  France. 


1792]  BATTLE   OF   VALMY  363 

1805.  Great  preparations  of  Napoleon  to  invade  England. 
Austria,  supported  by  Russia,  renews  war  with  France. 
Napoleon  marches  into  Germany,  takes  Vienna,  and  gains 
the  battle  of  Austerlitz.  Lord  Nelson  destroys  the  combined 
French  and  Spanish  fleets  and  is  killed  at  the  battle  of 
Trafalgar. 

1806.  War  between  Prussia  and  France.  Napoleon  con- 
quers Prussia  in  the  battle  of  Jena. 

1807.  Obstinate  warfare  between  the  French  and  Russian 
armies  in  East  Prussia  and  Poland.     Peace  of  Tilsit. 

1808.  Napoleon  endeavors  to  make  his  brother  king  of 
Spain.  Rising  of  the  Spanish  nation  against  him.  England 
sends  troops  to  aid  the  Spaniards.  Battles  of  Vimiera  and 
Corunna. 

1809.  War  renewed  between  France  and  Austria.  Battles 
of  Asperne  and  Wagram.  Peace  granted  to  Austria.  Lord 
Wellington's  victory  of  Talavera,  in  Spain. 

1 8 10.  Marriage  of  Napoleon  and  the  Archduchess  Maria 
Louisa.     Holland  annexed  to  France. 

18 12.  War  between  England  and  the  United  States. 
Napoleon  invades  Russia.  Battle  of  Borodino.  The  French 
occupy  Moscow,  which  is  burned.  Disastrous  retreat  and 
almost  total  destruction  of  the  great  army  of  France. 

18 1 3.  Prussia  and  Austria  take  up  arms  again  against 
France.  Battles  of  Liitzen,  Bautzen,  Dresden,  Culm,  and 
Leipsic.  The  French  are  driven  out  of  Germany.  Lord 
Wellington  gains  the  great  battle  of  Vittoria,  which  completes 
the  rescue  of  Spain  from  France. 

1 8 14.  The  Allies  invade  France  on  the  eastern,  and  Lord 
Wellington  invades  it  on  the  southern,  frontier.  Battles  of 
Laon,  Montmirail,  Arcis-sur-Aube,  and  others  in  the  northeast 
of  France,  and  of  Toulouse  in  the  south.  Paris  surrenders 
to  the  Allies,  and  Napoleon  abdicates.  First  restoration  of 
the  Bourbons.  Napoleon  goes  to  the  isle  of  Elba,  which 
is  assigned  to  him  by  the  Allies.  Treaty  of  Ghent  between 
the  United  States  and  England. 

181 5.  Napoleon  suddenly  escapes  from  Elba,  and  lands  in 
France.  The  French  soldiery  join  him,  and  Louis  XVIII. 
is  obliged  to  fly  from  the  throne. 


364  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [181 5 


CHAPTER   XV 

The  Battle  of  Waterloo,  1815 
"  Thou  first  and  last  of  fields,  king-making  victory." —  Byron. 

ENGLAND  has  now  been  blest  with  thirty-seven  years  of 
peace.  At  no  other  period  of  her  history  can  a  simi- 
larly long  cessation  from  a  state  of  warfare  be  found. 
It  is  true  that  our  troops  have  had  battles  to  fight  during  this 
interval  for  the  protection  and  extension  of  our  Indian  pos- 
sessions and  our  colonies ;  but  these  have  been  with  distant 
and  unimportant  enemies.  The  danger  has  never  been 
brought  near  our  own  shores,  and  no  matter  of  vital  impor- 
tance to  our  empire  has  ever  been  at  stake.  We  have  not 
had  hostilities  with  either  France,  America,  or  Russia ;  and 
when  not  at  war  with  any  of  our  peers,  we  feel  ourselves  to 
be  substantially  at  peace.  There  has,  indeed,  throughout 
this  long  period,  been  no  great  war  like  those  with  which  the 
previous  history  of  modern  Europe  abounds.  There  have 
been  formidable  collisions  between  particular  states;  and 
there  have  been  still  more  formidable  collisions  between 
the  armed  champions  of  the  conflicting  principles  of  absolu- 
tism and  democracy ;  but  there  has  been  no  general  war,  like 
those  of  the  French  Revolution,  like  the  American,  or  the 
Seven  Years'  war,  or  like  the  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession. 
It  would  be  far  too  much  to  augur  from  this  that  no  similar 
wars  will  again  convulse  the  world ;  but  the  value  of  the 
period  of  peace  which  Europe  has  gained  is  incalculable,  even 
if  we  look  on  it  as  only  a  truce  and  expect  again  to  see  the 
nations  of  the  earth  recur  to  what  some  philosophers  have 
termed  man's  natural  state  of  warfare. 

No  equal  number  of  years  can  be  found  during  which 
science,  commerce,  and  civilization  have  advanced  so  rapidly 
and  so  extensively  as  has  been  the  case  since   18 15.     When 


1815]  BATTLE   OF  WATERLOO  365 

we  trace  their  progress,  especially  in  this  country,  it  is  impos- 
sible not  to  feel  that  their  wondrous  development  has  been 
mainly  due  to  the  land  having  been  at  peace.  Their  good 
effects  cannot  be  obliterated,  even  if  a  series  of  wars  were  to 
recommence.  When  we  reflect  on  this,  and  contrast  these 
thirty-seven  years  with  the  period  that  preceded  them,  —  a 
period  of  violence,  of  tumult,  of  unrestingly  destructive  energy ; 
a  period  throughout  which  the  wealth  of  nations  was  scattered 
like  sand  and  the  blood  of  nations  lavished  like  water,  —  it  is 
impossible  not  to  look  with  deep  interest  on  the  final  crisis 
of  that  dark  and  dreadful  epoch  ;  the  crisis  out  of  which  our 
own  happier  cycle  of  years  has  been  evolved.  The  great 
battle  which  ended  the  twenty-three  years'  war  of  the  first 
French  Revolution,  and  which  quelled  the  man  whose  genius 
and  ambition  had  so  long  disturbed  and  desolated  the  world, 
deserves  to  be  regarded  by  us,  not  only  with  peculiar  pride, 
as  one  of  our  greatest  national  victories,  but  with  peculiar 
gratitude  for  the  repose  which  it  secured  for  us  and  for  the 
greater  part  of  the  human  race. 

One  good  test  for  determining  the  importance  of  Waterloo 
is  to  ascertain  what  was  felt  by  wise  and  prudent  statesmen, 
before  that  battle,  respecting  the  return  of  Napoleon  from 
Elba  to  the  imperial  throne  of  France,  and  the  probable 
effects  of  his  success.  For  this  purpose  I  will  quote  the 
words,  not  of  any  of  our  vehement  anti-Gallican  politicians  of 
the  school  of  Pitt,  but  of  a  leader  of  our  Liberal  party  —  of  a 
man  whose  reputation  as  a  jurist,  an  historian,  and  a  far- 
sighted  and  candid  statesman  was,  and  is,  deservedly  high,  not 
only  in  this  country,  but  throughout  Europe.  Sir  James 
Mackintosh,  in  the  debate  in  the  British  House  of  Commons, 
on  the  20th  of  April,  181 5,  spoke  thus  of  the  return  from  Elba  : 

"  Was  it  in  the  power  of  language  to  describe  the  evil  ?  Wars 
which  had  raged  for  more  than  twenty  years  throughout 
Europe;  which  had  spread  blood  and  desolation  from  Cadiz 
to  Moscow  and  from  Naples  to  Copenhagen ;  which  had 
wasted  the  means  of  human  enjoyment  and  destroyed  the 
instruments  of  social  improvement ;  which  threatened  to  dif- 
fuse among  the  European  nations  the  dissolute  and  ferocious 
habits  of  a  predatory  soldiery  —  at  length,  by  one  of  those 
vicissitudes  which  bid  defiance  to  the  foresight  of  man,  had 


366  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1815 

been  brought  to  a  close,  upon  the  whole  happy  beyond  all 
reasonable  expectation,  with  no  violent  shock  to  national  inde- 
pendence, with  some  tolerable  compromise  between  the  opin- 
ions of  the  age  and  reverence  due  to  ancient  institutions  ;  with 
no  too  signal  or  mortifying  triumph  over  the  legitimate  inter- 
ests or  avowable  feelings  of  any  numerous  body  of  men  ;  and, 
above  all,  without  those  retaliations  against  nations  or  parties 
which  beget  new  convulsions,  often  as  horrible  as  those  which 
they  close,  and  perpetuate  revenge  and  hatred  and  bloodshed 
from  age  to  age.  Europe  seemed  to  breathe  after  her  suffer- 
ings. In  the  midst  of  this  fair  prospect  and  of  these  consola- 
tory hopes,  Napoleon  Bonaparte  escaped  from  Elba ;  three 
small  vessels  reached  the  coast  of  Provence ;  our  hopes  are 
instantly  dispelled ;  the  work  of  our  toil  and  fortitude  is 
undone  ;  the  blood  of  Europe  is  spilt  in  vain  — 

" l  Ibi  omnis  effusus  labor! ' " 

The  congress  of  emperors,  kings,  princes,  generals,  and 
statesmen  who  had  assembled  at  Vienna  to  remodel  the 
world  after  the  overthrow  of  the  mighty  conqueror,  and  who 
thought  that  Napoleon  had  passed  away  forever  from  the 
great  drama  of  European  politics,  had  not  yet  completed  their 
triumphant  festivities  and  their  diplomatic  toils,  when  Talley- 
rand, on  the  nth  of  March,  18 15,  rose  up  among  them  and 
announced  that  the  ex-emperor  had  escaped  from  Elba,  and 
was  emperor  of  France  once  more.  It  is  recorded  by  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  as  a  curious  physiological  fact,  that  the  first 
effect  of  the  news  of  an  event  which  threatened  to  neutralize 
all  their  labors  was  to  excite  a  loud  burst  of  laughter  from 
nearly  every  member  of  the  congress.  But  the  jest  was  a 
bitter  one;  and  they  soon  were  deeply  busied  in  anxious 
deliberations  respecting  the  mode  in  which  they  should 
encounter  their  arch-enemy,  who  had  thus  started  from  tor- 
por and  obscurity  into  renovated  splendor  and  strength :  — 

"  Qualis  ubi  in  lucem  coluber  mala  gramina  pastus, 
Frigida  sub  terra  tumidum  quern  bruma  tegebat, 
Nunc  positis  novus  exuviis  nitidusquejuventa, 
Lubrica  convolvit  sublato  pectore  terga 
Arduus  ad  solem,  et  Unguis  micat  ore  trisulcis." 

—  Vergil,  ALneid. 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  3^7 

Napoleon  sought  to  disunite  the  formidable  confederacy 
which  he  knew  would  be  arrayed  against  him,  by  endeavoring 
to  negotiate  separately  with  each  of  the  allied  sovereigns.  It 
is  said  that  Austria  and  Russia  were  at  first  not  unwilling  to 
treat  with  him.  Disputes  and  jealousies  had  been  rife  among 
several  of  the  Allies  on  the  subject  of  the  division  of  the  con- 
quered countries ;  and  the  cordial  unanimity  with  which  they 
had  acted  during  1813  and  the  first  months  of  18 14  had 
grown  chill  during  some  weeks  of  discussions.  But  the  active 
exertions  of  Talleyrand,  who  represented  Louis  XVIII.  at  the 
congress,  and  who  both  hated  and  feared  Napoleon  with  all 
the  intensity  of  which  his  powerful  spirit  was  capable,  pre- 
vented the  secession  of  any  member  of  the  congress  from  the 
new  great  league  against  their  ancient  enemy.  Still,  it  is 
highly  probable  that  if  Napoleon  had  triumphed  in  Belgium 
over  the  Prussians  and  the  English,  he  would  have  succeeded 
in  opening  negotiations  with  the  Austrians  and  Russians;  and 
he  might  have  thus  gained  advantages  similar  to  those  which 
he  had  obtained  on  his  return  from  Egypt,  when  he  induced 
the  Czar  Paul  to  withdraw  the  Russian  armies  from  cooperating 
with  the  other  enemies  of  France  in  the  extremity  of  peril  to 
which  she  seemed  reduced  in  1799.  But  fortune  now  had 
deserted  him,  both  in  diplomacy  and  in  war. 

On  the  13th  of  March,  18 15,  the  ministers  of  the  seven 
powers,  Austria,  Spain,  England,  Portugal,  Prussia,  Russia, 
and  Sweden,  signed  a  manifesto  by  which  they  declared 
Napoleon  an  outlaw ;  and  this  denunciation  was  instantly  fol- 
lowed up  by  a  treaty  between  England,  Austria,  Prussia,  and 
Russia  (to  which  other  powers  soon  acceded),  by  which  the 
rulers  of  those  countries  bound  themselves  to  enforce  that 
decree,  and  to  prosecute  the  war  until  Napoleon  should  be 
driven  from  the  throne  of  France  and  rendered  incapable  of 
disturbing  the  peace  of  Europe.  The  Duke  of  Wellington 
was  the  representative  of  England  at  the  Congress  of  Vienna, 
and  he  was  immediately  applied  to  for  his  advice  on  the  plan 
of  military  operations  against  France.  It  was  obvious  that 
Belgium  would  be  the  first  battle-field ;  and  by  the  general 
wish  of  the  Allies,  the  English  duke  proceeded  thither  to 
assemble  an  army  from  the  contingents  of  Dutch,  Belgian, 
and    Hanoverian  troops  that  were  most  speedily  available, 


368  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1815 

and  from  the  English  regiments  which  his  own  government 
was  hastening  to  send  over  from  this  country.  A  strong 
Prussian  corps  was  near  Aix-la-Chapelle,  having  remained 
there  since  the  campaign  of  the  preceding  year.  This  was 
largely  reenforced  by  other  troops  of  the  same  nation ;  and 
Marshal  Bliicher,  the  favorite  hero  of  the  Prussian  soldiery 
and  the  deadliest  foe  of  France,  assumed  the  command  of  this 
army,  which  was  termed  the  "  Army  of  the  Lower  Rhine," 
and  which,  in  conjunction  with  Wellington's  forces,  was  to 
make  the  van  of  the  armaments  of  the  allied  powers.  Mean- 
while Prince  Schwartzenberg  was  to  collect  1 30,000  Austrians, 
and  124,000  troops  of  other  Germanic  states,  as  the  "Army 
of  the  Upper  Rhine  "  ;  and  168,000  Russians,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Barclay  de  Tolly,  were  to  form  the  "  Army  of  the 
Middle  Rhine,"  and  to  repeat  the  march  from  Muscovy  to 
that  river's  banks. 

The  exertions  which  the  allied  powers  thus  made  at  this 
crisis  to  grapple  promptly  with  the  French  emperor  have 
truly  been  termed  gigantic ;  and  never  were  Napoleon's 
genius  and  activity  more  signally  displayed  than  in  the  celer- 
ity and  skill  by  which  he  brought  forward  all  the  military 
resources  of  France,  which  the  reverses  of  the  three  preced- 
ing years  and  the  pacific  policy  of  the  Bourbons  during  the 
months  of  their  first  restoration  had  greatly  diminished  and 
disorganized.  He  reentered  Paris  on  the  20th  of  March, 
and  by  the  end  of  May,  besides  sending  a  force  into  La 
Vendee  to  put  down  the  armed  risings  of  the  royalists  in  that 
province,  and  besides  providing  troops  under  Massena  and 
Suchet  for  the  defense  of  the  southern  frontiers  of  France, 
Napoleon  had  an  army  assembled  in  the  northeast  for  active 
operations  under  his  own  command,  which  amounted  to  be- 
tween one  hundred  and  twenty  and  one  hundred  and  thirty 
thousand  men,  with  a  superb  park  of  artillery  and  in  the 
highest  possible  state  of  equipment,  discipline,  and  efficiency. 

The  approach  of  the  multitudinous  Russian,  Austrian, 
Bavarian,  and  other  foes  of  the  French  emperor  to  the  Rhine 
was  necessarily  slow ;  but  the  two  most  active  of  the  allied 
powers  had  occupied  Belgium  with  their  troops,  while  Napo- 
leon was  organizing  his  forces.  Marshal  Bliicher  was  there 
with  one  hundred  and  sixteen  thousand  Prussians;  and,  before 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  369 

the  end  of  May,  the  Duke  of  Wellington  was  there  also  with 
about  one  hundred  and  six  thousand  troops,  either  British  or 
in  British  pay.1  Napoleon  determined  to  attack  these  enemies 
in  Belgium.  The  disparity  of  numbers  was  indeed  great,  but 
delay  was  sure  to  increase  the  proportionate  numerical  supe- 
riority of  his  enemies  over  his  own  ranks.  The  French 
emperor  considered  also  that  "  the  enemy's  troops  were  now 
cantoned  under  the  command  of  two  generals,  and  composed 
of  nations  differing  both  in  interest  and  in  feelings."  His 
own  army  was  under  his  own  sole  command.  It  was  com- 
posed exclusively  of  French  soldiers,  mostly  of  veterans,  well 
acquainted  with  their  officers  and  with  each  other,  and  full 
of  enthusiastic  confidence  in  their  commander.  If  he  could 
separate  the  Prussians  from  the  British,  so  as  to  attack  each 
singly,  he  felt  sanguine  of  success,  not  only  against  these  the 
most  resolute  of  his  many  adversaries,  but  also  against  the 
other  masses  that  were  slowly  laboring  up  against  his  eastern 
dominions. 

The  triple  chain  of  strong  fortresses  which  the  French  pos- 
sessed on  the  Belgian  frontier  formed  a  curtain  behind  which 
Napoleon  was  able  to  concentrate  his  army,  and  to  conceal, 
till  the  very  last  moment,  the  precise  line  of  attack  which  he 
intended  to  take.  On  the  other  hand  Bliicher  and  Welling- 
ton were  obliged  to  canton  their  troops  along  a  line  of  open 
country  of  considerable  length,  so  as  to  watch  for  the  out- 
break of  Napoleon  from  whichever  point  of  his  chain  of  strong- 
holds he  should  please  to  make  it.  Bliicher,  with  his  army, 
occupied  the  banks  of  the  Sambre  and  the  Meuse,  from  Liege 
on  his  left,  to  Charleroi  on  his  right ;  and  the  Duke  of  Well- 
ington covered  Brussels,  his  cantonments  being  partly  in  front 
of  that  city  and  between  it  and  the  French  frontier,  and  partly 
on  its  west ;  their  extreme  right  reaching  to  Courtray  and 
Tournay,  while  the  left  approached  Charleroi  and  communi- 
cated with  the  Prussian  right.  It  was  upon  Charleroi  that 
Napoleon  resolved  to  level  his  attack,  in  hopes  of  severing 
the  two  allied  armies  from  each  other  and  then  pursuing  his 
favorite  tactics  of  assailing  each  separately  with  a  superior 
force  on  the  battle-field,  though  the  aggregate  of  their  num- 
bers considerably  exceeded  his  own. 

The   first   French   corps   d'armee,  commanded   by  Count 


37°  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1815 

d'Erlon,  was  stationed,  in  the  beginning  of  June,  in  and 
around  the  city  of  Lille,  near  to  the  northeastern  frontier  of 
France.  The  second  corps,  under  Count  Reille,  was  at  Va- 
lenciennes, to  the  right  of  the  first  one.  The  third  corps, 
under  Count  Vandamme,  was  at  Mezieres.  The  fourth, 
under  Court  Gerard,  had  its  headquarters  at  Metz ;  and  the 
sixth,2  under  Count  Lobau,  was  at  Laon.  Four  corps  of  re- 
serve cavalry,  under  Marshal  Grouchy,  were  also  near  the 
frontier,  between  the  rivers  Aisne  and  Sambre.  The  Impe- 
rial Guard  remained  in  Paris  until  the  8th  of  June,  when  it 
marched  towards  Belgium,  and  reached  Avesnes  on  the  13th ; 
and  in  the  course  of  the  same  and  the  following  day,  the  five 
corps  d'armee,  with  the  cavalry  reserves  which  have  been  men- 
tioned, were,  in  pursuance  of  skilfully  combined  orders,  rap- 
idly drawn  together  and  concentrated  in  and  around  the  same 
place,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  river  Sambre.  On  the  14th 
Napoleon  arrived  among  his  troops,  who  were  exulting  at  the 
display  of  their  commander's  skill  in  the  celerity  and  precision 
with  which  they  had  been  drawn  together  and  in  the  conscious- 
ness of  their  collective  strength.  Although  Napoleon  too  often 
permitted  himself  to  use  language  unworthy  of  his  own  char- 
acter respecting  his  great  English  adversary,  his  real  feelings 
in  commencing  this  campaign  may  be  judged  from  the  last 
words  which  he  spoke,  as  he  threw  himself  into  his  traveling- 
carriage  to  leave  Paris  for  the  army.  "  I  go,"  he  said,  "  to 
measure  myself  with  Wellington." 

The  enthusiasm  of  the  French  soldiers  at  seeing  their  em- 
peror among  them  was  still  more  excited  by  the  "  Order  of 
the  Day,"  in  which  he  thus  appealed  to  them  :  — 

"  Napoleon,  by  the  Grace  of  God,  and  the  Constitution  of  the  Empire, 
Emperor  of  the  French,  etc.,  to  the  Grand  Army. 

"At  the  Imperial  Headquarters, 
"  Avesnes,  June  14th,  18 15. 
"  Soldiers !  this  day  is  the  anniversary  of  Marengo  and  of  Friedland,  which 
twice  decided  the  destiny  of  Europe.  Then,  as  after  Austerlitz,  as  after 
Wagram,  we  were  too  generous!  We  believed  in  the  protestations  and  in 
the  oaths  of  princes,  whom  we  left  on  their  thrones.  Now,  however,  leagued 
together,  they  aim  at  the  independence  and  the  most  sacred  rights  of  France. 
They  have  commenced  the  most  unjust  of  aggressions.  Let  us,  then,  march 
to  meet  them.     Are  they  and  we  no  longer  the  same  men? 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  371 

"  Soldiers!  at  Jena,  against  these  same  Prussians,  now  so  arrogant,  you 
were  one  to  three,  and  at  Montmirail  one  to  six! 

"  Let  those  among  you  who  have  been  captives  to  the  English  describe 
the  nature  of  their  prison  ships,  and  the  frightful  miseries  they  endured. 

"  The  Saxons,  the  Belgians,  the  Hanoverians,  the  soldiers  of  the  Con- 
federation of  the  Rhine,  lament  that  they  are  compelled  to  use  their  arms 
in  the  cause  of  princes,  the  enemies  of  justice  and  of  the  rights  of  all  nations. 
They  know  that  this  coalition  is  insatiable!  After  having  devoured  twelve 
millions  of  Poles,  twelve  millions  of  Italians,  one  million  of  Saxons,  and  six 
millions  of  Belgians,  it  now  wishes  to  devour  the  states  of  the  second  rank 
in  Germany. 

"  Madmen!  one  moment  of  prosperity  has  bewildered  them.  The  oppres- 
sion and  the  humiliation  of  the  French  people  are  beyond  their  power.  If 
they  enter  France,  they  will  there  find  their  grave. 

"Soldiers!  we  have  forced  marches  to  make,  battles  to  fight,  dangers  to 
encounter ;  but,  with  firmness,  victory  will  be  ours.  The  rights,  the  honor, 
and  the  happiness  of  the  country  will  be  recovered ! 

"  To  every  Frenchman  who  has  a  heart,  the  moment  is  now  arrived  to 
conquer  or  to  die. 

"  Napoleon. 

"The  Marshal  Duke  of  Dalmatia, 
"  Major-general." 

The  15th  of  June  had  scarcely  dawned  before  the  French 
army  was  in  motion  for  the  decisive  campaign  and  crossed 
the  frontier  in  three  columns,  which  were  pointed  upon  Charle- 
roi  and  its  vicinity.  The  French  line  of  advance  upon  Brus- 
sels, which  city  Napoleon  resolved  to  occupy,  thus  lay  right 
through  the  center  of  the  cantonments  of  the  Allies. 

Much  criticism  has  been  expended  on  the  supposed  surprise 
of  Wellington's  army  in  its  cantonments  by  Napoleon's  rapid 
advance.  These  comments  would  hardly  have  been  made  if 
sufficient  attention  had  been  paid  to  the  geography  of  the 
Waterloo  campaign ;  and  if  it  had  been  remembered  that  the 
protection  of  Brussels  was  justly  considered  by  the  allied  gen- 
erals a  matter  of  primary  importance.  If  Napoleon  could, 
either  by  maneuvering  or  fighting,  have  succeeded  in  occupy- 
ing that  city,  the  greater  part  of  Belgium  would  unquestion- 
ably have  declared  in  his  favor ;  and  the  results  of  such 
a  success,  gained  by  the  emperor  at  the  commencement  of  the 
campaign,  might  have  decisively  influenced  the  whole  after 
current  of  events.  A  glance  at  the  map  will  show  the  numer- 
ous roads  that  lead  from  the  different  fortresses  on  the  French 
northeastern  frontier   and  converge  upon  Brussels,  any  one 


372  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1815 

of  which  Napoleon  might  have  chosen  for  the  advance  of  a 
strong  force  upon  that  city.  The  duke's  army  was  judiciously 
arranged  so  as  to  enable  him  to  concentrate  troops  on  any 
one  of  these  roads  sufficiently  in  advance  of  Brussels  to  check 
an  assailing  enemy.  The  army  was  kept  thus  available  for 
movement  in  any  necessary  direction,  till  certain  intelligence 
arrived  on  the  15th  of  June  that  the  French  had  crossed  the 
frontier  in  large  force  near  Thuin,  that  they  had  driven  back 
the  Prussian  advanced  troops  under  General  Ziethen,  and  were 
also  moving  across  the  Sambre  upon  Charleroi. 

Marshal  Bliicher  now  rapidly  concentrated  his  forces,  call- 
ing them  in  from  the  left  upon  Ligny,  which  is  to  the  north- 
east of  Charleroi.  Wellington  also  drew  his  troops  together, 
calling  them  in  from  the  right.  But  even  now,  though  it  was 
certain  that  the  French  were  in  large  force  at  Charleroi,  it 
was  unsafe  for  the  English  general  to  place  his  army  directly 
between  that  place  and  Brussels,  until  it  was  certain  that  no 
corps  of  the  enemy  was  marching  upon  Brussels  by  the  west- 
ern road  through  Mons  and  Hal.  The  duke,  therefore,  col- 
lected his  troops  in  Brussels  and  its  immediate  vicinity,  ready 
to  move  due  southward  on  Quatre  Bras  and  cooperate  with 
Bliicher,  who  was  taking  his  station  at  Ligny,  but  also  ready 
to  meet  and  defeat  any  maneuver  that  the  enemy  might  make 
to  turn  the  right  of  the  Allies  and  occupy  Brussels  by  a  flank- 
ing movement.  The  testimony  of  the  Prussian  general, 
Baron  Muffling,  who  was  attached  to  the  duke's  staff  during 
the  campaign  and  who  expressly  states  the  reasons  on  which 
the  English  general  acted,  ought  forever  to  have  silenced  the 
"  weak  inventions  of  the  enemy  "  about  the  Duke  of  Welling- 
ton having  been  deceived  and  surprised  by  his  assailant,  which 
some  writers  of  our  own  nation,  as  well  as  foreigners,  have 
incautiously  repeated. 

It  was  about  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  15th  that 
a  Prussian  officer  reached  Brussels,  whom  General  Ziethen 
had  sent  to  Muffling  to  inform  him  of  the  advance  of  the  main 
French  army  upon  Charleroi.  Muffling  immediately  com- 
municated this  to  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  and  asked  him 
whether  he  would  now  concentrate  his  army,  and  what  would 
be  his  point  of  concentration,  observing  that  Marshal  Bliicher 
in  consequence  of  this  intelligence  would  certainly  concentrate 


1815]  BATTLE   OF  WATERLOO  373 

the  Prussians  at  Ligny.  The  duke  replied  :  "  If  all  is  as  Gen- 
eral Ziethen  supposes,  I  will  concentrate  on  my  left  wing, 
and  so  be  in  readiness  to  fight  in  conjunction  with  the  Prus- 
sian army.  Should,  however,  a  portion  of  the  enemy's  force 
come  by  Mons,  I  must  concentrate  more  towards  my  center. 
This  is  the  reason  why  I  must  wait  for  positive  news  from 
Mons  before  I  fix  the  rendezvous.  Since,  however,  it  is  cer- 
tain that  the  troops  must  march,  though  it  is  uncertain  upon 
what  precise  spot  they  must  march,  I  will  order  all  to  be  in 
readiness  and  will  direct  a  brigade  to  move  at  once  towards 
Quatre  Bras." 

Later  in  the  same  day  a  message  from  Bliicher  himself 
was  delived  to  Muffling,  in  which  the  Prussian  field-marshal 
informed  the  baron  that  he  was  concentrating  his  men  at 
Sombref  and  Ligny,  and  charged  Muffling  to  give  him 
speedy  intelligence  respecting  the  concentration  of  Welling- 
ton. Muffling  immediately  communicated  this  to  the  duke, 
who  expressed  his  satisfaction  with  Bliicher's  arrangements, 
but  added  that  he  could  not  even  then  resolve  upon  his  own 
point  of  concentration  before  he  obtained  the  desired  intelli- 
gence from  Mons.  About  midnight  this  information  arrived. 
The  duke  went  to  the  quarters  of  General  Muffling  and  told 
him  that  he  now  had  received  his  reports  from  Mons  and  was 
sure  that  no  French  troops  were  advancing  by  that  route,  but 
that  the  mass  of  the  enemy's  force  was  decidedly  directed  on 
Charleroi.  He  informed  the  Prussian  general  that  he  had 
ordered  the  British  troops  to  move  forward  upon  Quatre  Bras; 
but  with  characteristic  coolness  and  sagacity  resolved  not  to 
give  the  appearance  of  alarm  by  hurrying  on  with  them  him- 
self. A  ball  was  to  be  given  by  the  Duchess  of  Richmond  at 
Brussels  that  night,  and  the  duke  proposed  to  General  Muf- 
fling that  they  should  go  to  the  ball  for  a  few  hours,  and  ride 
forward  in  the  morning  to  overtake  the  troops  at  Quatre  Bras. 

To  hundreds  who  were  assembled  at  that  memorable  ball  the 
news  that  the  enemy  was  advancing,  and  that  the  time  for 
battle  had  come,  must  have  been  a  fearfully  exciting  surprise, 
and  the  magnificent  stanzas  of  Byron  ["  Childe  Harold," 
Canto  III.]  are  as  true  as  they  are  beautiful;  but  the  duke 
and  his  principal  officers  knew  well  the  stern  termination  to 
that  festive  scene,  which  was  approaching.     One  by  one,  and 


374  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1815 

in  such  a  way  as  to  attract  as  little  observation  as  possible, 
the  leaders  of  the  various  corps  left  the  ballroom  and  took 
their  stations  at  the  head  of  their  men,  who  were  pressing 
forward  through  the  last  hours  of  the  short  summer  night  to 
the  arena  of  anticipated  slaughter. 

Napoleon's  operations  on  the  15th  had  been  conducted 
with  signal  skill  and  vigor ;  and  their  results  had  been  very- 
advantageous  for  his  plan  of  the  campaign.  With  his  army 
formed  in  three  vast  columns,  he  had  struck  at  the  center  of 
the  line  of  cantonments  of  his  allied  foes ;  and  he  had  so  far 
made  good  his  blow  that  he  had  effected  the  passage  of  the 
Sambre,  he  had  beaten  with  his  left  wing  the  Prussian  corps 
of  General  Ziethen  at  Thuin,  and  with  his  center  he  had  in 
person  advanced  right  through  Charleroi  upon  Fleurus,  inflict- 
ing considerable  loss  upon  the  Prussians  that  fell  back  before 
him.  His  right  column  had  with  little  opposition  moved  for- 
ward as  far  as  the  bridge  of  Chatelet. 

Napoleon  had  thus  a  powerful  force  immediately  in  front 
of  the  point  which  Bliicher  had  fixed  for  the  concentration  of 
the  Prussian  army,  and  that  concentration  was  still  incom- 
plete. The  French  emperor  designed  to  attack  the  Prussians 
on  the  morrow  in  person  with  the  troops  of  his  center  and 
right  columns,  and  to  employ  his  left  wing  in  beating  back 
such  English  troops  as  might  advance  to  the  help  of  their 
allies,  and  also  in  aiding  his  own  attack  upon  Bliicher.  He 
gave  the  command  of  his  left  wing  to  Marshal  Ney.  Napo- 
leon seems  not  to  have  originally  intended  to  employ  this 
celebrated  general  in  the  campaign.  It  was  only  on  the 
night  of  the  nth  of  June  that  Marshal  Ney  received  at  Paris 
an  order  to  join  the  army.  Hurrying  forward  to  the  Belgian 
frontier,  he  met  the  emperor  near  Charleroi.  Napoleon 
immediately  directed  him  to  take  the  command  of  the  left 
wing  and  to  press  forward  with  it  upon  Quatre  Bras  by  the 
line  of  the  road  which  leads  from  Charleroi  to  Brussels, 
through  Gosselies,  Frasne,  Quatre  Bras,  Genappe,  and  Water- 
loo. Ney  immediately  proceeded  to  the  post  assigned  him ; 
and  before  ten  on  the  night  of  the  15th  he  had  occupied  Gos- 
selies and  Frasne,  driving  out  without  much  difficulty  some 
weak  Belgian  detachments  which  had  been  stationed  in  those 
villages.    The  lateness  of  the  hour  and  the  exhausted  state  of 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  375 

the  French  troops,  who  had  been  marching  and  fighting  since 
ten  in  the  morning,  made  him  pause  from  advancing  farther 
to  attack  the  much  more  important  position  of  Quatre  Bras. 
In  truth,  the  advantages  which  the  French  gained  by  their 
almost  superhuman  energy  and  activity  throughout  the  long 
day  of  the  15th  of  June  were  necessarily  bought  at  the  price 
of  more  delay  and  inertness  during  the  following  night  and 
morrow  than  would  have  been  observable  if  they  had  not 
been  thus  overtasked.  Ney  has  been  blamed  for  want  of 
promptness  in  his  attack  upon  Quatre  Bras,  and  Napoleon 
has  been  criticized  for  not  having  fought  at  Ligny  before  the 
afternoon  of  the  16th;  but  their  censors  should  remember 
that  soldiers  are  but  men  and  that  there  must  be  necessarily 
some  interval  of  time  before  troops  that  have  been  worn  and 
weakened  by  twenty  hours  of  incessant  fatigue  and  strife  can 
be  fed,  rested,  reorganized,  and  brought  again  into  action  with 
any  hope  of  success. 

Having  on  the  night  of  the  15th  placed  the  most  advanced 
of  the  French  under  his  command  in  position  in  front  of 
Frasne,  Ney  rode  back  to  Charleroi,  where  Napoleon  also 
arrived  about  midnight,  having  returned  from  directing  the 
operations  of  the  center  and  right  column  of  the  French. 
The  emperor  and  the  marshal  supped  together,  and  remained 
in  earnest  conversation  till  two  in  the  morning.  An  hour  or 
two  afterwards  Ney  rode  back  to  Frasne,  where  he  endeav- 
ored to  collect  tidings  of  the  numbers  and  movements  of  the 
enemy  in  front  of  him  ;  and  also  busied  himself  in  the  neces- 
sary duty  of  learning  the  amount  and  composition  of  the 
troops  which  he  himself  was  commanding.  He  had  been 
so  suddenly  appointed  to  his  high  station  that  he  did  not 
know  the  strength  of  the  several  regiments  under  him,  or 
even  the  names  of  their  commanding  officers.  He  now  caused 
his  aides-de-camp  to  prepare  the  requisite  returns,  and  drew 
together  the  troops,  whom  he  was  thus  learning  before  he 
used  them. 

Wellington  remained  at  the  Duchess  of  Richmond's  ball  at 
Brussels  till  about  three  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  16th, 
"showing  himself  very  cheerful,"  as  Baron  Muffling,  who  ac- 
companied him,  observes.  At  five  o'clock  the  duke  and  the 
baron  were  on  horseback  and  reached  the  position  at  Quatre 


376  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1815 

Bras  about  eleven.  As  the  French,  who  were  in  front  of 
Frasne,  were  perfectly  quiet,  and  the  duke  was  informed  that 
a  very  large  force  under  Napoleon  in  person  was  menacing 
Blucher,  it  was  thought  possible  that  only  a  slight  detach- 
ment of  the  French  was  posted  at  Frasne  in  order  to  mask 
the  English  army.  In  that  event  Wellington,  as  he  told 
Baron  Muffling,  would  be  able  to  employ  his  whole  strength 
in  supporting  the  Prussians ;  and  he  proposed  to  ride  across 
from  Quatre  Bras  to  Bliicher's  position,  in  order  to  concert 
with  him  personally  the  measures  which  should  be  taken  in 
order  to  bring  on  a  decisive  battle  with  the  French.  Welling- 
ton and  Muffling  rode  accordingly  towards  Ligny,  and  found 
Marshal  Blucher  and  his  staff  at  the  windmill  of  Bry,  near 
that  village.  The  Prussian  army,  80,000  strong,  was  drawn 
up  chiefly  along  a  chain  of  heights,  with  the  villages  of  Som- 
bref,  St.  Amand,  and  Ligny  in  their  front.  These  villages 
were  strongly  occupied  by  Prussian  detachments,  and  formed 
the  keys  of  Bliicher's  position.  The  heads  of  the  columns 
which  Napoleon  was  forming  for  the  attack  were  visible  in 
the  distance.  The  duke  asked  Blucher  and  General  Gneise- 
nau  (who  was  Bliicher's  adviser  in  matters  of  strategy) 
what  they  wished  him  to  do.  Muffling  had  already  explained 
to  them  in  a  few  words  the  duke's  earnest  desire  to  support 
the  field-marshal,  and  that  he  would  do  all  that  they  wished, 
provided  they  did  not  ask  him  to  divide  his  army,  which  was 
contrary  to  his  principles.  The  duke  wished  to  advance  with 
his  army  (as  soon  as  it  was  concentrated)  upon  Frasne  and 
Gosselies,  and  thence  to  move  upon  Napoleon's  flank  and 
rear.  The  Prussian  leaders  preferred  that  he  should  march 
his  men  from  Quatre  Bras  by  the  Namur  road,  so  as  to  form 
a  reserve  in  rear  of  Bliicher's  army.  The  duke  replied, 
"Well,  I  will  come  if  I  am  not  attacked  myself,"  and  galloped 
back  with  Muffling  to  Quatre  Bras,  where  the  French  attack 
was  now  actually  raging. 

Marshal  Ney  began  the  battle  about  two  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon.  He  had  at  this  time  in  hand  about  16,000  infan- 
try, nearly  2000  cavalry,  and  38  guns.  The  force  which 
Napoleon  nominally  placed  at  his  command  exceeded  40,000 
men.  But  more  than  one  half  of  these  consisted  of  the  first 
French  corps  d'armee,  under  Count  d'Erlon;  and  Ney  was 


1815]  BATTLE   OF  WATERLOO  377 

deprived  of  the  use  of  this  corps  at  the  time  that  he  most 
required  it,  in  consequence  of  its  receiving  orders  to  march 
to  the  aid  of  the  emperor  at  Ligny.  A  magnificent  body  of 
heavy  cavalry  under  Kellermann,  nearly  5000  strong,  and 
several  more  battalions  of  artillery  were  added  to  Ney's  army 
during  the  battle  of  Quatre  Bras ;  but  his  effective  infantry 
force  never  exceeded  16,000. 

When  the  battle  began,  the  greater  part  of  the  duke's  army 
was  yet  on  its  march  towards  Quatre  Bras  from  Brussels  and 
the  other  parts  of  its  cantonments.  The  force  of  the  Allies, 
actually  in  position  there,  consisted  only  of  a  Dutch  and 
Belgian  division  of  infantry,  not  quite  7000  strong,  with  one 
battalion  of  foot,  and  one  of  horse-artillery.  The  Prince  of 
Orange  commanded  them.  A  wood,  called  the  Bois  de 
Bossu,  stretched  along  the  right  (or  western)  flank  of  the 
position  of  Quatre  Bras ;  a  farmhouse  and  building,  called 
Gemiancourt,  stood  on  some  elevated  ground  in  its  front ; 
and  to  the  left  (or  east)  were  the  enclosures  of  the  village  of 
Pierremont.  The  Prince  of  Orange  endeavored  to  secure 
these  posts ;  but  Ney  carried  Gemiancourt  in  the  center,  and 
Pierremont  on  the  east,  and  gained  occupation  of  the  southern 
part  of  the  wood  of  Bossu.  He  ranged  the  chief  part  of  his 
artillery  on  the  high  ground  of  Gemiancourt,  whence  it  played 
throughout  the  action  with  most  destructive  effect  upon  the 
Allies.  He  was  pressing  forward  to  further  advantages, 
when  the  fifth  infantry  division,  under  Sir  Thomas  Picton, 
and  the  Duke  of  Brunswick's  corps,  appeared  upon  the  scene. 
Wellington  (who  had  returned  to  Quatre  Bras  from  his  inter- 
view with  Bliicher  shortly  before  the  arrival  of  these  forces) 
restored  the  fight  with  them ;  and  as  fresh  troops  of  the  Allies 
arrived,  they  were  brought  forward  to  stem  the  fierce  attacks 
which  Ney's  columns  and  squadrons  continued  to  make  with 
unabated  gallantry  and  zeal.  The  only  cavalry  of  the  Anglo- 
allied  army  that  reached  Quatre  Bras  during  the  action 
consisted  of  Dutch  and  Belgians,  and  a  small  force  of  Bruns- 
wickers  under  their  duke,  who  was  killed  on  the  field.  These 
proved  wholly  unable  to  encounter  Kellermann's  cuirassiers 
and  Pire's  lancers.  The  Dutch  and  Belgian  infantry  also  gave 
way  early  in  the  engagement ;  so  that  the  whole  brunt  of  the 
battle  fell  on  the  British  and  German  infantry.     They  sus- 


37$  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1815 

tained  it  nobly.  Though  repeatedly  charged  by  the  French 
cavalry,  though  exposed  to  the  murderous  fire  of  the  French 
batteries,  which  from  the  heights  of  Gemiancourt  sent  shot 
and  shell  into  the  devoted  squares  whenever  the  French 
horsemen  withdrew,  they  not  only  repelled  their  assailants, 
but  Kempt's  and  Pack's  brigades,  led  on  by  Picton,  actually 
advanced  against  and  through  their  charging  foes,  and  with 
stern  determination  made  good  to  the  end  of  the  day  the 
ground  which  they  had  thus  boldly  won.  Some,  however, 
of  the  British  regiments  were  during  the  confusion  assailed 
by  the  French  cavalry  before  they  could  form  squares,  and 
suffered  severely.  One  regiment,  the  92d,  was  almost  wholly 
destroyed  by  the  cuirassiers.  A  French  private  soldier 
named  Lami,  of  the  8th  Regiment  of  cuirassiers,  captured 
one  of  the  English  colors  and  presented  it  to  Ney.  It  was  a 
solitary  trophy.  The  arrival  of  the  English  Guards  about 
half-past  six  o'clock  enabled  the  duke  to  recover  the  wood  of 
Bossu,  which  the  French  had  almost  entirely  won  and  the  pos- 
session of  which  by  them  would  have  enabled  Ney  to  operate 
destructively  upon  the  allied  flank  and  rear.  Not  only  was 
the  wood  of  Bossu  recovered  on  the  British  right,  but  the  en- 
closures of  Pierremont  were  also  carried  on  the  left.  When 
night  set  in  the  French  had  been  driven  back  on  all  points 
towards  Frasne  ;  but  they  still  held  the  farm  of  Gemiancourt 
in  front  of  the  duke's  center.  Wellington  and  Muffling  were 
unacquainted  with  the  result  of  the  collateral  battle  between 
Bliicher  and  Napoleon,  the  cannonading  of  which  had  been 
distinctly  audible  at  Quatre  Bras  throughout  the  afternoon 
and  evening.  The  duke  observed  to  Muffling  that  of  course 
the  two  allied  armies  would  assume  the  offensive  against  the 
enemy  on  the  morrow,  and,  consequently,  it  would  be  better 
to  capture  the  farm  at  once,  instead  of  waiting  till  next  morn- 
ing. Muffling  agreed  in  the  duke's  views,  and  Gemiancourt 
was  forthwith  attacked  by  the  English  and  captured  with 
little  loss  to  the  assailants. 

Meanwhile  the  French  and  the  Prussians  had  been  fighting 
in  and  round  the  villages  of  Ligny,  Sombref,  and  St.  Amand, 
from  three  in  the  afternoon  to  nine  in  the  evening,  with  a 
savage  inveteracy  almost  unparalleled  in  modern  warfare. 
Bliicher  had  in  the  field,  when  he  began  the  battle,  83,417 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  379 

men  and  224  guns.  Bulow's  corps,  which  was  25,000  strong, 
had  not  joined  him.  But  the  field-marshal  hoped  to  be  reen- 
forced  by  it  or  by  the  English  army  before  the  end  of  the 
action.  But  Bulow,  through  some  error  in  the  transmission  of 
orders,  was  far  in  the  rear ;  and  the  Duke  of  Wellington  was 
engaged,  as  we  have  seen,  with  Marshal  Ney.  Bliicher  re- 
ceived early  warning  from  Baron  Muffling  that  the  duke 
could  not  come  to  his  assistance ;  but,  as  Muffling  observes, 
Wellington  rendered  the  Prussians  the  great  service  of  occu- 
pying more  than  40,000  of  the  enemy,  who  otherwise  would 
have  crushed  Bliicher's  right  flank.  For  not  only  did  the 
conflict  at  Quatre  Bras  detain  the  French  troops  which 
actually  took  part  in  it,  but  d'Erlon  received  orders  from  Ney 
to  join  him,  which  hindered  d'Erlon  from  giving  effectual  aid 
to  Napoleon.  Indeed,  the  whole  of  d'Erlon's  corps,  in  conse- 
quence of  conflicting  directions  from  Ney  and  the  emperor, 
marched  and  countermarched,  during  the  16th,  between 
Quatre  Bras  and  Ligny  without  firing  a  shot  in  either  battle. 

Bliicher  had,  in  fact,  a  superiority  of  more  than  12,000  in 
number  over  the  French  army  that  attacked  him  at  Ligny. 
The  numerical  difference  was  even  greater  at  the  beginning 
of  the  battle,  as  Lobau's  corps  did  not  come  up  from  Charleroi 
till  eight  o'clock.  After  five  hours  and  a  half  of  desperate 
and  long-doubtful  struggle,  Napoleon  succeeded  in  breaking 
the  center  of  the  Prussian  line  at  Ligny,  and  in  forcing  his 
obstinate  antagonists  off  the  field  of  battle.  The  issue  was 
attributable  to  his  skill,  and  not  to  any  want  of  spirit  or  reso- 
lution on  the  part  of  the  Prussian  troops  ;  nor  did  they,  though 
defeated,  abate  one  jot  in  discipline,  heart,  or  hope.  As 
Bliicher  observed,  it  was  a  battle  in  which  his  army  lost  the 
day  but  not  its  honor.  The  Prussians  retreated  during  the 
night  of  the  16th  and  the  early  part  of  the  17th,  with  perfect 
regularity  and  steadiness.  The  retreat  was  directed  not 
towards  Maestricht,  where  their  principal  depots  were  estab- 
lished, but  towards  Wavre,  so  as  to  be  able  to  maintain  their 
communication  with  Wellington's  army,  and  still  follow  out 
the  original  plan  of  the  campaign.  The  heroism  with  which 
the  Prussians  endured  and  repaired  their  defeat  at  Ligny  is 
more  glorious  than  many  victories. 

The  messenger  who  was  sent  to  inform  Wellington  of  the 


380  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1815 

retreat  of  the  Prussian  army  was  shot  on  the  way ;  and  it  was 
not  until  the  morning  of  the  17th  that  the  Allies,  at  Quatre 
Bras,  knew  the  result  of  the  battle  of  Ligny.  The  duke  was 
ready  at  daybreak  to  take  the  offensive  against  the  enemy 
with  vigor,  his  whole  army  being  by  that  time  fully  assembled. 
But  on  learning  that  Bliicher  had  been  defeated,  a  different 
course  of  action  was  clearly  necessary.  It  was  obvious  that 
Napoleon's  main  army  would  now  be  directed  against  Well- 
ington, and  a  retreat  was  inevitable.  On  ascertaining  that 
the  Prussian  army  had  retired  upon  Wavre,  that  there  was  no 
hot  pursuit  of  them  by  the  French,  and  that  Bulow's  corps 
had  taken  no  part  in  the  action  at  Ligny,  the  duke  resolved 
to  march  his  army  back  towards  Brussels,  still  intending  to 
cover  that  city  and  to  halt  at  a  point  in  a  line  with  Wavre, 
and  there  restore  his  communication  with  Bliicher.  An  offi- 
cer from  Bliicher's  army  reached  the  duke  about  nine  o'clock, 
from  whom  he  learned  the  effective  strength  that  Bliicher 
still  possessed,  and  how  little  discouraged  his  ally  was  by 
yesterday's  battle.  Wellington  sent  word  to  the  Prussian 
commander  that  he  would  halt  in  the  position  of  Mont  St. 
Jean,  and  accept  a  general  battle  with  the  French,  if  Bliicher 
would  pledge  himself  to  come  to  his  assistance  with  a  single 
corps  of  25,000  men.  This  was  readily  promised;  and  after 
allowing  his  men  ample  time  for  rest  and  refreshment,  Welling- 
ton retired  over  about  half  the  space  between  Quatre  Bras  and 
Brussels.  He  was  pursued,  but  little  molested,  by  the  main 
French  army,  which  about  noon  of  the  17th  moved  laterally 
from  Ligny  and  joined  Ney's  forces,  which  had  advanced 
through  Quatre  Bras  when  the  British  abandoned  that  posi- 
tion. The  Earl  of  Uxbridge,  with  the  British  cavalry,  covered 
the  retreat  of  the  duke's  army  with  great  skill  and  gallantry ; 
and  a  heavy  thunder-storm,  with  torrents  of  rain,  impeded  the 
operations  of  the  French  pursuing  squadrons.  The  duke 
still  expected  that  the  French  would  endeavor  to  turn  his 
right  and  march  upon  Brussels  by  the  highroad  that  leads 
through  Mons  and  Hal.  In  order  to  counteract  this  antici- 
pated maneuver,  he  stationed  a  force  of  18,000  men,  under 
Prince  Frederick  of  the  Netherlands,  at  Hal,  with  orders  to 
maintain  himself  there,  if  attacked,  as  long  as  possible.  The 
duke  halted  with  the  rest  of  his  army  at  the  position  near 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  38 1 

Mont  St.  Jean  which,  from  a  village  in  its  neighborhood,  has 
received  the  ever-memorable  name  of  the  field  of  Waterloo. 

Wellington  was  now  about  twelve  miles  distant,  on  a  line  run- 
ning from  west  to  east,  from  Wavre,  where  the  Prussian  army 
had  now  been  completely  reorganized  and  collected,  and  where 
it  had  been  strengthened  by  the.  junction  of  Bulow's  troops, 
which  had  taken  no  part  in  the  battle  of  Ligny.  Bliicher  sent 
word  from  Wavre  to  the  duke  that  he  was  coming  to  help  the 
English  at  Mont  St.  Jean,  in  the  morning,  not  with  one  corps, 
but  with  his  whole  army.  The  fiery  old  man  only  stipulated 
that  the  combined  armies,  if  not  attacked  by  Napoleon  on  the 
1 8th,  should  themselves  attack  him  on  the  19th.  So  far  were 
Bliicher  and  his  army  from  being  in  the  state  of  annihilation 
described  in  the  boastful  bulletin  by  which  Napoleon  informed 
the  Parisians  of  his  victory  at  Ligny.  Indeed,  the  French  em- 
peror seems  himself  to  have  been  misinformed  as  to  the  extent 
of  loss  which  he  had  inflicted  on  the  Prussians.  Had  he  known 
in  what  good  order  and  with  what  undiminished  spirit  they 
were  retiring,  he  would  scarcely  have  delayed  sending  a  large 
force  to  press  them  in  their  retreat  until  noon  on  the  17th. 
Such,  however,  was  the  case.  It  was  about  that  time  that  he 
confided  to  Marshal  Grouchy  the  duty  of  pursuing  the  defeated 
Prussians  and  preventing  them  from  joining  Wellington.  He 
placed  for  this  purpose  32,000  men  and  96  guns  under  his 
orders.  Violent  complaints  and  recriminations  passed  after- 
wards between  the  emperor  and  the  marshal  respecting  the 
manner  in  which  Grouchy  attempted  to  perform  this  duty,  and 
the  reasons  why  he  failed  on  the  18th  to  arrest  the  lateral 
movement  of  the  Prussians  from  Wavre  to  Waterloo.  It  is 
sufficient  to  remark  here,  that  the  force  which  Napoleon  gave 
to  Grouchy  (though  the  utmost  that  the  emperor's  limited 
means  would  allow)  was  insufficient  to  make  head  against  the 
entire  Prussian  army,  especially  after  Bulow's  junction  with 
Bliicher.  We  shall  presently  have  occasion  to  consider  what 
opportunities  were  given  to  Grouchy  during  the  18th,  and 
what  he  might  have  effected  if  he  had  been  a  man  of  original 
military  genius. 

But  the  failure  of  Grouchy  was  in  truth  mainly  owing  to  the 
indomitable  heroism  of  Bliicher  himself ;  who,  though  he  had 
received  severe  personal  injuries  in  the  battle  of  Ligny,  was 


382  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1815 

as  energetic  and  ready  as  ever  in  bringing  his  men  into  action 
again,  and  who  had  the  resolution  to  expose  a  part  of  his  army, 
under  Thielman,  to  be  overwhelmed  by  Grouchy  at  Wavre  on 
the  1 8th,  while  he  urged  the  march  of  the  mass  of  his  troops 
upon  Waterloo.  "  It  is  not  at  Wavre,  but  at  Waterloo,"  said 
the  old  field-marshal,  "  that  the  campaign  is  to  be  decided  " ; 
and  he  risked  a  detachment,  and  won  the  campaign  accord- 
ingly. Wellington  and  Bliicher  trusted  each  other  as  cordially, 
and  cooperated  as  zealously,  as  formerly  had  been  the  case 
with  Marlborough  and  Eugene.  It  was  in  full  reliance  on 
Bliicher's  promise  to  join  him  that  the  duke  stood  his  ground 
and  fought  at  Waterloo ;  and  those  who  have  ventured  to 
impugn  the  duke's  capacity  as  a  general  ought  to  have  had 
common  sense  enough  to  perceive  that  to  charge  the  duke 
with  having  won  the  battle  of  Waterloo  by  the  help  of  the 
Prussians  is  really  to  say  that  he  won  it  by  the  very  means 
on  which  he  relied,  and  without  the  expectation  of  which  the 
battle  would  not  have  been  fought. 

Napoleon  himself  has  found  fault  with  Wellington  for  not 
having  retreated  farther,  so  as  to  complete  a  junction  of  his 
army  with  Bliicher's  before  he  risked  a  general  engagement. 
But,  as  we  have  seen,  the  duke  justly  considered  it  important 
to  protect  Brussels.  He  had  reason  to  expect  that  his  army 
could  singly  resist  the  French  at  Waterloo  until  the  Prussians 
came  up,  and  that,  on  the  Prussians  joining,  there  would  be 
a  sufficient  force  united  under  himself  and  Bliicher  for  com- 
pletely overwhelming  the  enemy.  And  while  Napoleon  thus 
censures  his  great  adversary,  he  involuntarily  bears  the  high- 
est possible  testimony  to  the  military  character  of  the  Eng- 
lish, and  proves  decisively  of  what  paramount  importance 
was  the  battle  to  which  he  challenged  his  fearless  opponent. 
Napoleon  asks,  "  If  the  English  army  had  been  beaten  at 
Waterloo,  what  would  have  been  the  use  of  those  numerous 
bodies  of  troops,  of  Prussians,  Austrians,  Germans,  and  Span- 
iards, which  were  advancing  by  forced  marches  to  the  Rhine, 
the  Alps,  and  the  Pyrenees  ?  " 

The  strength  of  the  army  under  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
at  Waterloo  was  49,608  infantry,  12,402  cavalry,  and  5645 
artillerymen  with  156  guns.  But  of  this  total  of  67,655  men, 
scarcely  24,000  were  British,  a  circumstance  of  very  serious 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  3^3 

importance,  if  Napoleon's  own  estimate  of  the  relative  value 
of  troops  of  different  nations  is  to  be  taken.  In  the  emperor's 
own  words,  speaking  of  this  campaign,  "A  French  soldier 
would  not  be  equal  to  more  than  one  English  soldier,  but  he 
would  not  be  afraid  to  meet  two  Dutchmen,  Prussians,  or 
soldiers  of  the  Confederation."  There  were  about  6000  men 
of  the  old  German  Legion  with  the  duke  ;  these  were  veteran 
troops  and  of  excellent  quality.  Of  the  rest  of  the  army  the 
Hanoverians  and  Brunswickers  proved  themselves  deserving 
of  confidence  and  praise.  But  the  Nassauers,  Dutch,  and 
Belgians  were  almost  worthless ;  and  not  a  few  of  them  were 
justly  suspected  of  a  strong  wish  to  fight,  if  they  fought  at 
all,  under  the  French  eagles  rather  than  against  them. 

Napoleon's  army  at  Waterloo  consisted  of  48,950  infantry, 
15,765  cavalry,  7232  artillerymen,  being  a  total  of  71,947  men 
and  246  guns.  They  were  the  flower  of  the  national  forces  of 
France ;  and  of  all  the  numerous  gallant  armies  which  that 
martial  land  has  poured  forth,  never  was  there  one  braver, 
or  better  disciplined,  or  better  led  than  the  host  that  took  up 
its  position  at  Waterloo  on  the  morning  of  the  18th  of  June, 
1815. 

Perhaps  those  who  have  not  seen  the  field  of  battle  at 
Waterloo,  or  the  admirable  model  of  the  ground  and  of  the 
conflicting  armies  which  was  executed  by  Captain  Siborne, 
may  gain  a  generally  accurate  idea  of  the  localities  by  pictur- 
ing to  themselves  a  valley  between  two  and  three  miles  long, 
of  various  breadths  at  different  points,  but  generally  not 
exceeding  half  a  mile.  On  each  side  of  the  valley  there  is 
a  winding  chain  of  low  hills  running  somewhat  parallel  with 
each  other.  The  declivity  from  each  of  these  ranges  of  hills 
to  the  intervening  valley  is  gentle  but  not  uniform,  the  un- 
dulations of  the  ground  being  frequent  and  considerable. 
The  English  army  was  posted  on  the  northern  and  the  French 
army  occupied  the  southern  ridge.  The  artillery  of  each  side 
thundered  at  the  other  from  their  respective  heights  through- 
out the  day,  and  the  charges  of  horse  and  foot  were  made 
across  the  valley  that  has  been  described.  The  village  of 
Mont  St.  Jean  is  situated  a  little  behind  the  center  of  the 
northern  chain  of  hills,  and  the  village  of  La  Belle  Alliance 
is  close  behind  the  center  of  the  southern  ridge.     The  high- 


384  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1815 

road  from  Charleroi  to  Brussels  (a  broad  paved  causeway) 
runs  through  both  these  villages  and  bisects  therefore  both 
the  English  and  the  French  position.  The  line  of  this  road 
was  the  line  of  Napoleon's  intended  advance  on  Brussels. 

There  are  some  other  local  particulars  connected  with  the 
situation  of  each  army  which  it  is  necessary  to  bear  in  mind. 
The  strength  of  the  British  position  did  not  consist  merely  in 
the  occupation  of  a  ridge  of  high  ground.  A  village  and 
ravine,  called  Merk  Braine,  on  the  Duke  of  Wellington's 
extreme  right,  secured  his  flank  from  being  turned  on  that 
side ;  and  on  his  extreme  left  two  little  hamlets,  called  La 
Haye  and  Papelotte,  gave  a  similar,  though  a  slighter,  pro- 
tection. Behind  the  whole  British  position  is  the  extensive 
forest  of  Soignies.  As  no  attempt  was  made  by  the  French 
to  turn  either  of  the  English  flanks,  and  the  battle  was  a  day 
of  straightforward  fighting,  it  is  chiefly  important  to  ascertain 
what  posts  there  were  in  front  of  the  British  line  of  hills  of 
which  advantage  could  be  taken  either  to  repel  or  facilitate 
an  attack ;  and  it  will  be  seen  that  there  were  two,  and  that 
each  was  of  very  great  importance  in  the  action.  In  front 
of  the  British  right  —  that  is  to  say,  on  the  northern  slope  of 
the  valley  towards  its  western  end  —  there  stood  an  old-fash- 
ioned Flemish  farmhouse  called  Goumont,  or  Hougoumont, 
with  outbuildings  and  a  garden,  and  with  a  copse  of  beech- 
trees  of  about  two  acres  in  extent  round  it.  This  was  strongly 
garrisoned  by  the  allied  troops ;  and,  while  it  was  in  their 
possession,  it  was  difficult  for  the  enemy  to  press  on  and  force 
the  British  right  wing.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the  enemy 
could  take  it,  it  would  be  difficult  for  that  wing  to  keep  its 
ground  on  the  heights,  with  a  strong  post  held  adversely  in 
its  immediate  front,  being  one  that  would  give  much  shelter 
to  the  enemy's  marksmen  and  great  facilities  for  the  sudden 
concentration  of  attacking  columns.  Almost  immediately  in 
front  of  the  British  center,  and  not  so  far  down  the  slope  as 
Hougoumont,  there  was  another  farmhouse  of  a  smaller  size, 
called  La  Haye  Sainte,3  which  was  also  held  by  the  British 
troops,  and  the  occupation  of  which  was  found  to  be  of  very 
serious  consequence. 

With  respect  to  the  French  position,  the  principal  feature 
to  be  noticed  is  the  village  of  Planchenoit,  which  lay  a  little 


i8is]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  3^5 

in  the  rear  of  their  right  {i.e.  on  the  eastern  side),  and  which 
proved  to  be  of  great  importance  in  aiding  them  to  check  the 
advance  of  the  Prussians. 

Napoleon,  in  his  memoirs,  and  other  French  writers,  have 
vehemently  blamed  the  duke  for  having  given  battle  in  such 
a  position  as  that  of  Waterloo.  They  particularly  object  that 
the  duke  fought  without  having  the  means  of  a  retreat,  if  the 
attacks  of  his  enemy  had  proved  successful ;  and  that  the 
English  army,  if  once  broken,  must  have  lost  all  its  guns  and 
mativiel  in  its  flight  through  the  forest  of  Soignies,  that  lay 
in  its  rear.  In  answer  to  these  censures,  instead  of  merely 
referring  to  the  event  of  the  battle  as  proof  of  the  correctness 
of  the  duke's  judgment,  it  is  to  be  observed  that  many  mili- 
tary critics  of  high  authority  have  considered  the  position  of 
Waterloo  to  have  been  admirably  adapted  for  the  duke's 
purpose  of  protecting  Brussels  by  a  battle  ;  and  that  certainly 
the  duke's  opinion  in  favor  of  it  was  not  lightly  or  hastily 
formed.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  (mentioned  in  the  speech  of 
Lord  Bathurst  when  moving  the  vote  of  thanks  to  the  duke 
in  the  House  of  Lords)  that,  when  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
was  passing  through  Belgium  in  the  preceding  summer  of 
1 8 14,  he  particularly  noticed  the  strength  of  the  position 
of  Waterloo,  and  made  a  minute  of  it  at  the  time,  stating 
to  those  who  were  with  him  that  if  it  ever  should  be  his  fate  to 
fight  a  battle  in  that  quarter  for  the  protection  of  Brussels,  he 
should  endeavor  to  do  so  in  that  position.  And  with  respect 
to  the  forest  of  Soignies,  which  the  French  (and  some  few 
English)  critics  have  thought  calculated  to  prove  so  fatal  to  a 
retreating  force,  the  duke,  on  the  contrary,  believed  it  to  be  a 
post  that  might  have  proved  of  infinite  value  to  his  army  in 
the  event  of  his  having  been  obliged  to  give  way.  The  forest 
of  Soignies  has  no  thicket  or  masses  of  close-growing  trees. 
It  consists  of  tall  beeches,  and  is  everywhere  passable  for  men 
and  horses.  The  artillery  could  have  been  withdrawn  by  the 
broad  road  which  traverses  it  towards  Brussels ;  and  in  the 
mean  while  a  few  regiments  of  resolute  infantry  could  have 
held  the  forest  and  kept  the  pursuers  in  check.  One  of  the 
best  writers  on  the  Waterloo  campaign,  Captain  Pringle,  well 
observes  that  "  every  person  the  least  experienced  in  war 
knows  the  extreme  difficulty  of  forcing  infantry  from  a  wood 


386  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1815 

which  cannot  be  turned."  The  defense  of  the  Bois  de  Bossu 
near  Quatre  Bras  on  the  16th  of  June  had  given  a  good  proof 
of  this  ;  and  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  when  speaking  in  after- 
years  of  the  possible  events  that  might  have  followed  if  he 
had  been  beaten  back  from  the  open  field  of  Waterloo,  pointed 
to  the  wood  of  Soignies  as  his  secure  rallying  place,  saying, 
"  They  never  could  have  beaten  us  so  that  we  could  not  have 
held  the  wood  against  them."  He  was  always  confident  that 
he  could  have  made  good  that  post  until  joined  by  the  Prus- 
sians, upon  whose  cooperation  he  throughout  depended. 

As  has  been  already  mentioned,  the  Prussians  on  the  morn- 
ing of  the  1 8th  were  at  Wavre,  which  is  about  twelve  miles  to 
the  east  of  the  field  of  battle  of  Waterloo.  The  junction  of 
Bulow's  division  had  more  than  made  up  for  the  loss  sustained 
at  Ligny ;  and  leaving  Thielman,  with  about  seventeen  thou- 
sand men,  to  hold  his  ground  as  he  best  could  against  the 
attack  which  Grouchy  was  about  to  make  on  Wavre,  Bulow 
and  Bliicher  moved  with  the  rest  of  the  Prussians  through  St. 
Lambert  upon  Waterloo.  It  was  calculated  that  they  would 
be  there  by  three  o'clock ;  but  the  extremely  difficult  nature 
of  the  ground  which  they  had  to  traverse,  rendered  worse  by 
the  torrents  of  rain  that  had  just  fallen,  delayed  them  long  on 
their  twelve  miles'  march. 

An  army,  indeed,  less  animated  by  bitter  hate  against  the 
enemy  than  were  the  Prussians  and  under  a  less  energetic 
chief  than  Bliicher,  would  have  failed  altogether  in  effecting 
a  passage  through  the  swamps  into  which  the  incessant  rain 
had  transformed  the  greater  part  of  the  ground  through  which 
it  was  necessary  to  move,  not  only  with  columns  of  foot,  but 
with  cavalry  and  artillery.  At  one  point  of  the  march,  on 
entering  the  defile  of  St.  Lambert,  the  spirits  of  the  Prus- 
sians almost  gave  way.  Exhausted  in  the  attempts  to  extri- 
cate and  drag  forward  the  heavy  guns,  the  men  began  to 
murmur.  Bliicher  came  to  the  spot  and  heard  cries  from 
the  ranks  of  "  We  cannot  get  on."  "  But  you  must  get  on," 
was  the  old  field-marshal's  answer.  "  I  have  pledged  my 
word  to  Wellington,  and  you  surely  will  not  make  me  break 
it.  Only  exert  yourselves  for  a  few  hours  longer,  and  we  are 
sure  of  victory."  This  appeal  from  old  "  Marshal  Forwards," 
as  the  Prussian  soldiers  loved  to  call  Bliicher,  had  its  wonted 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  3^7 

effect.     The  Prussians  again  moved  forward,  slowly,  indeed, 
and  with  pain  and  toil ;  but  still  they  moved  forward. 

The  French  and  British  armies  lay  on  the  open  field  during 
the  wet  and  stormy  night  of  the  17th  ;  and  when  the  dawn  of 
the  memorable  18th  of  June  broke,  the  rain  was  still  descend- 
ing heavily  upon  Waterloo.  The  rival  nations  rose  from 
their  dreary  bivouacs  and  began  to  form,  each  on  the  high 
ground  which  it  occupied.  Towards  nine  the  weather  grew 
clearer,  and  each  army  was  able  to  watch  the  position  and 
arrangements  of  the  other  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  valley. 

The  Duke  of  Wellington  drew  up  his  army  in  two  lines, 
the  principal  one  being  stationed  near  the  crest  of  the  ridge 
of  hills  already  described,  and  the  other  being  arranged  along 
the  slope  in  the  rear  of  his  position.  Commencing  from  the 
eastward,  on  the  extreme  left  of  the  first  or  main  line,  were 
Vivian's  and  Vandeleur's  brigades  of  light  cavalry,  and  the 
fifth  Hanoverian  brigade  of  infantry  under  Von  Vincke. 
Then  came  Best's  fourth  Hanoverian  brigade.  Detachments 
from  these  bodies  of  troops  occupied  the  little  villages  of 
Papelotte  and  La  Haye,  down  the  hollow  in  advance  of  the 
left  of  the  duke's  position.  To  the  right  of  Best's  Hanoveri- 
ans, Bylandt's  brigade  of  Dutch  and  Belgian  infantry  was 
drawn  up  on  the  outer  slope  of  the  heights.  Behind  them 
were  the  ninth  brigade  of  British  infantry  under  Pack ;  and 
to  the  right  of  these  last,  but  more  in  advance,  stood  the 
eighth  brigade  of  English  infantry  under  Kempt.  These 
were  close  to  the  Charleroi  road  and  to  the  center  of  the 
entire  position.  These  two  English  brigades,  with  the  fifth 
Hanoverian,  made  up  the  fifth  division,  commanded  by  Sir 
Thomas  Picton.  Immediately  to  their  right,  and  westward 
of  the  Charleroi  road,  stood  the  third  division,  commanded 
by  General  Alten,  and  consisting  of  Ompteda's  brigade  of 
the  king's  German  Legion  and  Kielmansegge's  Hanoverian 
brigade.  The  important  post  of  La  Haye  Sainte,  which,  it 
will  be  remembered,  lay  in  front  of  the  duke's  center,  close 
to  the  Charleroi  road,  was  garrisoned  with  troops  from  this 
division.  Westward,  and  on  the  right  of  Kielmansegge's 
Hanoverians,  stood  the  fifth  British  brigade  under  Halkett ; 
and  behind,  Kruse's  Nassau  brigade  was  posted.  On  the 
right  of  Halkett's  men   stood   the   English  Guards.     They 


388  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1815 

were  in  two  brigades,  one  commanded  by  Maitland,  and  the 
other  by  Byng.  The  entire  division  was  under  General 
Cooke.  The  buildings  and  gardens  of  Hougoumont,  which 
lay  immediately  under  the  height  on  which  stood  the  British 
Guards,  were  principally  manned  by  detachments  from  Byng's 
brigade,  aided  by  some  brave  Hanoverian  riflemen  and  ac- 
companied by  a  battalion  of  a  Nassau  regiment.  On  a 
plateau  in  the  rear  of  Cooke's  division  of  Guards,  and  inclin- 
ing westward  towards  the  village  of  Merbe  Braine,  were 
Clinton's  second  infantry  division,  composed  of  Adams's  third 
brigade  of  light  infantry,  Du  Plat's  first  brigade  of  the  king's 
German  Legion,  and  third  Hanoverian  brigade  under  Colonel 
Halkett. 

The  duke  formed  his  second  line  of  cavalry.  This  only 
extended  behind  the  right  and  center  of  his  first  line.  The 
largest  mass  was  drawn  up  behind  the  brigades  of  infantry  in 
the  center,  on  either  side  of  the  Charleroi  road.  The  brigade 
of  household  cavalry  under  Lord  Somerset  was  on  the  imme- 
diate right  of  the  road,  and  on  the  left  of  it  was  Ponsonby's 
brigade.  Behind  these  were  Trip's  and  Ghingy's  brigades  of 
Dutch  and  Belgian  horse.  The  third  Hussars  of  the  king's 
German  Legion  were  to  the  right  of  Somerset's  brigade.  To 
the  right  of  these,  and  behind  Maitland's  infantry,  stood  the 
third  brigade  under  Dornberg,  consisting  of  the  twenty-third 
English  light  dragoons  and  the  regiments  of  light  dragoons 
of  the  king's  German  Legion.  The  last  cavalry  on  the  right 
was  Grant's  brigade,  stationed  in  the  rear  of  the  Foot  Guards. 
The  corps  of  Brunswickers,  both  horse  and  foot,  and  the  tenth 
British  brigade  of  foot  were  in  reserve  behind  the  center  and 
right  of  the  entire  position.  The  artillery  was  distributed  at 
convenient  intervals  along  the  front  of  the  whole  line.  Be- 
sides the  generals  who  have  been  mentioned,  Lord  Hill,  Lord 
Uxbridge  (who  had  the  general  command  of  the  cavalry), 
the  Prince  of  Orange,  and  General  Chasse  were  present  and 
acting  under  the  duke.4 

On  the  opposite  heights  the  French  army  was  drawn  up 
in  two  general  lines,  with  the  entire  force  of  the  Imperial 
Guards,  cavalry  as  well  as  infantry,  in  rear  of  the  center,  as 
a  reserve. 

The  first  line  of  the  French  army  was  formed  of  the  two 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  389 

corps  commanded  by  Count  d'Erlon  and  Count  Reille. 
D'Erlon's  corps  was  on  the  right,  that  is,  eastward  of  the 
Charleroi  road,  and  consisted  of  four  divisions  of  infantry 
under  Generals  Durette,  Marcognet,  Alix,  and  Donzelot,  and  of 
one  division  of  light  cavalry  under  General  Jaquinot.  Count 
Reille's  corps  formed  the  left  or  western  wing,  and  was  formed 
of  Bachelu's,  Foy's,  and  Jerome  Bonaparte's  divisions  of  in- 
fantry and  of  Pire's  division  of  cavalry.  The  right  wing  of 
the  second  general  French  line  was  formed  of  Milhaud's  corps, 
consisting  of  two  divisions  of  heavy  cavalry.  The  left  wing 
of  this  line  was  formed  by  Kellermann's  cavalry  corps,  also 
in  two  divisions.  Thus  each  of  the  corps  of  infantry  that 
composed  the  first  line  had  a  corps  of  cavalry  behind  it ;  but 
the  second  line  consisted  also  of  Lobau's  corps  of  infantry 
and  Domont  and  Subervie's  divisions  of  light  cavalry;  these 
three  bodies  of  troops  being  drawn  up  on  either  side  of  La 
Belle  Alliance  and  forming  the  center  of  the  second  line. 
The  third,  or  reserve,  line  had  its  center  composed  of  the 
infantry  of  the  Imperial  Guard.  Two  regiments  of  grena- 
diers and  two  of  chasseurs  formed  the  foot  of  the  Old  Guard 
under  General  Friant.  The  Middle  Guard,  under  Count 
Morand,  was  similarly  composed ;  while  two  regiments  of 
voltigeurs  and  two  of  tirailleurs,  under  Duhesme,  constituted 
the  Young  Guard.  The  chasseurs  and  lancers  of  the  Guard 
were  on  the  right  of  the  infantry,  under  Lef ebvre  Desnouettes ; 
and  the  grenadiers  and  dragoons  of  the  Guards,  under  Guyot, 
were  on  the  left.  All  the  French  corps  comprised,  besides 
their  cavalry  and  infantry  regiments,  strong  batteries  of  horse- 
artillery  ;  and  Napoleon's  numerical  superiority  in  guns  was 
of  deep  importance  throughout  the  action. 

Besides  the  leading  generals  who  have  been  mentioned  as 
commanding  particular  corps,  Ney  and  Soult  were  present 
and  acted  as  the  emperor's  lieutenants  in  the  battle. 

English  military  critics  have  highly  eulogized  the  admirable 
arrangement  which  Napoleon  made  of  his  forces  of  each  arm 
so  as  to  give  him  the  most  ample  means  of  sustaining,  by  an 
immediate  and  sufficient  support,  any  attack,  from  whatever 
point  he  might  direct  it,  and  of  drawing  promptly  together  a 
strong  force  to  resist  any  attack  that  might  be  made  on  him- 
self in  any  part  of  the  field.     When  his  troops  were  all  arrayed, 


390  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1815 

he  rode  along  the  lines,  receiving  everywhere  the  most  enthu- 
siastic cheers  from  his  men,  of  whose  entire  devotion  to  him 
his  assurance  was  now  doubly  sure.  On  the  northern  side  of 
the  valley  the  duke's  army  was  also  drawn  up,  and  ready  to 
meet  the  menaced  attack. 

Wellington  had  caused,  on  the  preceding  night,  every  bri- 
gade and  corps  to  take  up  its  station  on  or  near  the  part  of 
the  ground  which  it  was  intended  to  hold  in  the  coming  battle. 
He  had  slept  a  few  hours  at  his  headquarters  in  the  village 
of  Waterloo;  and  rising  on  the  18th,  while  it  was  yet  deep 
night,  he  wrote  several  letters,  to  the  Governor  of  Antwerp, 
to  the  English  Minister  at  Brussels,  and  other  official  person- 
ages, in  which  he  expressed  his  confidence  that  all  would  go 
well ;  but,  "  as  it  was  necessary  to  provide  against  serious 
losses  should  any  accident  occur,"  he  gave  a  series  of  judi- 
cious orders  for  what  should  be  done  in  the  rear  of  the  army 
in  the  event  of  the  battle  going  against  the  Allies.  He  also, 
before  he  left  the  village  of  Waterloo,  saw  to  the  distribution 
of  the  reserves  of  ammunition  which  had  been  parked  there, 
so  that  supplies  should  be  readily  forwarded  to  every  part  of 
the  line  of  battle  where  they  might  be  required.  The  duke, 
also,  personally  inspected  the  arrangements  that  had  been 
made  for  receiving  the  wounded  and  providing  temporary 
hospitals  in  the  houses  in  the  rear  of  the  army.  Then,  mount- 
ing a  favorite  charger,  a  small  thoroughbred  chestnut  horse, 
named  "  Copenhagen,"  Wellington  rode  forward  to  the  range 
of  hills  where  his  men  were  posted.  Accompanied  by  his 
staff  and  by  the  Prussian  General  Muffling,  he  rode  along  his 
lines,  carefully  inspecting  all  the  details  of  his  position.  Hou- 
goumont  was  the  object  of  his  special  attention.  He  rode 
down  to  the  southeastern  extremity  of  its  enclosures,  and, 
after  having  examined  the  nearest  French  troops,  he  made 
some  changes  in  the  disposition  of  his  own  men  who  were  to 
defend  that  important  post. 

Having  given  his  final  orders  about  Hougoumont,  the  duke 
galloped  back  to  the  high  ground  in  the  right  center  of  his 
position,  and,  halting  there,  sat  watching  the  enemy  on  the 
opposite  heights  and  conversing  with  his  staff  with  that  cheer- 
ful serenity  which  was  ever  his  characteristic  in  the  hour  of 
battle. 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  391 

Not  all  brave  men  are  thus  gifted ;  and  many  a  glance  of 
anxious  excitement  must  have  been  cast  across  the  valley  that 
separated  the  two  hosts  during  the  protracted  pause  which 
ensued  between  the  completion  of  Napoleon's  preparations 
for  attack  and  the  actual  commencement  of  the  contest.  It 
was,  indeed,  an  awful  calm  befcre  the  coming  storm,  when 
armed  myriads  stood  gazing  on  their  armed  foes,  scanning 
their  number,  their  array,  their  probable  powers  of  resistance 
and  destruction,  and  listening  with  throbbing  hearts  for  the 
momentarily  expected  note  of  death  ;  while  visions  of  victory 
and  glory  came  thronging  on  each  soldier's  high-strung  brain, 
not  unmingled  with  recollections  of  the  home  which  his  fall 
might  soon  leave  desolate,  nor  without  shrinking  nature  some- 
times prompting  the  cold  thought  that  in  a  few  moments  he 
might  be  writhing  in  agony,  or  lie  a  trampled  and  mangled 
mass  of  clay,  on  the  grass  now  waving  so  freshly  and  purely 
before  him. 

Such  thoughts  will  arise  in  human  breasts,  though  the  brave 
man  soon  silences  "  the  child  within  us  that  trembles  before 
death,"  and  nerves  himself  for  the  coming  struggle  by  the 
mental  preparation  which  Xenophon  has  finely  called  "  the 
soldier's  arraying  his  own  soul  for  battle."  Well,  too,  may 
we  hope  and  believe  that  many  a  spirit  sought  aid  from  a 
higher  and  holier  source,  and  that  many  a  fervent,  though 
silent,  prayer  arose  on  that  Sabbath  morn  (the  battle  of  Water- 
loo was  fought  on  a  Sunday)  to  the  Lord  of  Sabaoth,  the  God 
of  Battles,  from  the  ranks  whence  so  many  thousands  were 
about  to  appear  that  day  before  his  judgment-seat. 

Not  only  to  those  who  were  thus  present  as  spectators  and 
actors  in  the  dread  drama,  but  to  all  Europe,  the  decisive  con- 
test then  impending  between  the  rival  French  and  English 
nations,  each  under  its  chosen  chief,  was  the  object  of  excit- 
ing interest  and  deepest  solicitude.  "  Never,  indeed,  had  two 
such  generals  as  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  the  Emperor 
Napoleon  encountered  since  the  day  when  Scipio  and  Hanni- 
bal met  at  Zama." 

The  two  great  champions  who  now  confronted  each  other 
were  equals  in  years,  and  each  had  entered  the  military  pro- 
fession at  the  same  early  age.  The  more  conspicuous  stage 
on  which  the  French  general's  youthful  genius  was  displayed, 


392  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1815 

his  heritage  of  the  whole  military  power  of  the  French  repub- 
lic, the  position  on  which  for  years  he  was  elevated  as  sover- 
eign head  of  an  empire  surpassing  that  of  Charlemagne,  and 
the  dazzling  results  of  his  victories,  which  made  and  unmade 
kings,  had  given  him  a  formidable  preeminence  in  the  eyes 
of  mankind.  Military  men  spoke  with  justly  rapturous  ad- 
miration of  the  brilliancy  of  his  first  Italian  campaigns,  when 
he  broke  through  the  pedantry  of  traditional  tactics  and  with 
a  small  but  promptly  wielded  force  shattered  army  after  army 
of  the  Austrians,  conquered  provinces  and  capitals,  dictated 
treaties,  and  annihilated  or  created  states.  The  iniquity  of 
his  Egyptian  expedition  was  too  often  forgotten  in  contem- 
plating the  skill  and  boldness  with  which  he  destroyed  the 
Mameluke  cavalry  at  the  Pyramids,  and  the  Turkish  infantry 
at  Aboukir.  None  could  forget  the  marvelous  passage  of  the 
Alps  in  1800,  or  the  victory  of  Marengo,  which  wrested  Italy 
back  from  Austria  and  destroyed  the  fruit  of  twenty  victories 
which  the  enemies  of  France  had  gained  over  her  in  the 
absence  of  her  favorite  chief.  Even  higher  seemed  the  glories 
of  his  German  campaigns,  the  triumphs  of  Ulm,  of  Austerlitz, 
of  Jena,  of  Wagram.  Napoleon's  disasters  in  Russia,  in  18 12, 
were  imputed  by  his  admirers  to  the  elements ;  his  reverses 
in  Germany,  in  18 13,  were  attributed  by  them  to  treachery; 
and  even  those  two  calamitous  years  had  been  signalized  by 
his  victories  at  Borodino,  at  Lutzen,  at  Bautzen,  at  Dresden, 
and  at  Hanau.  His  last  campaign,  in  the  early  months  of 
18 14,  was  rightly  cited  as  the  most  splendid  exhibition  of  his 
military  genius,  when,  with  a  far  inferior  army,  he  long  checked 
and  frequently  defeated  the  vast  hosts  that  were  poured  upon 
France.  His  followers  fondly  hoped  that  the  campaign  of 
1815  would  open  with  another  "week  of  miracles,"  like  that 
which  had  seen  his  victories  at  Montmirail  and  Montereau. 
The  laurel  of  Ligny  was  even  now  fresh  upon  his  brows. 
Blucher  had  not  stood  before  him  ;  and  who  was  the  adversary 
that  now  should  bar  the  emperor's  way  ? 

That  adversary  had  already  overthrown  the  emperor's  best 
generals  and  the  emperor's  best  armies,  and,  like  Napoleon 
himself,  had  achieved  a  reputation  in  more  than  European 
wars.  Wellington  was  illustrious  as  the  destroyer  of  the 
Mahratta  power,  as  the  liberator  of  Portugal  and  Spain,  and 


1815]  BATTLE   OF  WATERLOO  393 

the  successful  invader  of  Southern  France.  In  early  youth 
he  had  held  high  command  in  India,  and  had  displayed  emi- 
nent skill  in  planning  and  combining  movements,  and  unri- 
valed celerity  and  boldness  in  execution.  On  his  return  to 
Europe,  several  years  passed  away  before  any  fitting  oppor- 
tunity was  accorded  for  the  exercise  of  his  genius.  In  this 
important  respect,  Wellington,  as  a  subject,  and  Napoleon, 
as  a  sovereign,  were  far  differently  situated.  At  length  his 
appointment  to  the  command  in  the  Spanish  Peninsula  gave 
him  the  means  of  showing  Europe  that  England  had  a  gen- 
eral who  could  revive  the  glories  of  Crecy,  of  Poitiers,  of 
Agincourt,  of  Blenheim,  and  of  Ramilies.  At  the  head  of 
forces  always  numerically  far  inferior  to  the  armies  with  which 
Napoleon  deluged  the  Peninsula ;  thwarted  by  jealous  and 
incompetent  allies ;  ill  supported  by  friends  and  assailed  by 
factious  enemies  at  home,  Wellington  maintained  the  war  for 
seven  years,  unstained  by  any  serious  reverse,  and  marked 
by  victory  in  thirteen  pitched  battles,  at  Vimiera,  the  Douro, 
Talavera,  Busaco,  Fuentes  de  Onoro,  Salamanca,  Vittoria, 
the  Pyrenees,  the  Bidassoa,  the  Nive,  the  Nivelle,  Orthes, 
and  Toulouse.  Junot,  Victor,  Massena,  Ney,  Marmont,  and 
Jourdain  —  marshals  whose  names  were  the  terror  of  Con- 
tinental Europe  —  had  been  baffled  by  his  skill  and  smitten 
down  by  his  energy,  while  he  liberated  the  kingdoms  of  the 
Peninsula  from  them  and  their  imperial  master.  In  vain  did 
Napoleon  at  last  despatch  Soult,  the  ablest  of  his  lieutenants, 
to  turn  the  tide  of  Wellington's  success  and  defend  France 
against  the  English  invader.  Wellington  met  Soult's  maneu- 
vers with  superior  skill,  and  his  boldness  with  superior  vigor. 
When  Napoleon's  first  abdication,  in  1814,  suspended  hostili- 
ties, Wellington  was  master  of  the  fairest  districts  of  Southern 
France,  and  had  under  him  a  veteran  army  with  which  (to 
use  his  own  expressive  phrase)  "  he  felt  he  could  have  gone 
anywhere  and  done  anything."  The  fortune  of  war  had 
hitherto  kept  separate  the  orbits  in  which  Napoleon  and  he 
had  moved.  Now,  on  the  ever-memorable  18th  of  June,  181 5, 
they  met  at  last. 

It  is,  indeed,  remarkable  that  Napoleon,  during  his  numer- 
ous campaigns  in  Spain  as  well  as  other  countries,  not  only 
never  encountered  the  Duke  of  Wellington  before  the  day  of 


394  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1815 

Waterloo,  but  that  he  was  never  until  then  personally  engaged 
with  British  troops,  except  at  the  siege  of  Toulon,  in  1793, 
which  was  the  very  first  incident  of  his  military  career. 
Many,  however,  of  the  French  generals  who  were  with  him 
in  181 5  knew  well,  by  sharp  experience,  what  English  sol- 
diers were  and  what  the  leader  was  who  now  headed  them. 
Ney,  Foy,  and  other  officers  who  had  served  in  the  Peninsula 
warned  Napoleon  that  he  would  find  the  English  infantry 
"very  devils  in  fight."  The  emperor,  however,  persisted  in 
employing  the  old  system  of  attack,  with  which  the  French 
generals  often  succeeded  against  Continental  troops  but 
which  had  always  failed  against  the  English  in  the  Peninsula. 
He  adhered  to  his  usual  tactics  of  employing  the  order  of 
the  column,  a  mode  of  attack  probably  favored  by  him  (as 
Sir  Walter  Scott  remarks)  on  account  of  his  faith  in  the 
extreme  valor  of  the  French  officers  by  whom  the  column 
was  headed.  It  is  a  threatening  formation,  well  calculated  to 
shake  the  firmness  of  ordinary  foes,  but  which,  when  steadily 
met,  as  the  English  have  met  it,  by  heavy  volleys  of  musketry 
from  an  extended  line,  followed  up  by  a  resolute  bayonet 
charge,  has  always  resulted  in  disaster  to  the  assailants.5 

It  was  approaching  noon  before  the  action  commenced. 
Napoleon,  in  his  "  Memoirs,"  gives  as  the  reason  for  this 
delay  the  miry  state  of  the  ground  through  the  heavy  rain 
of  the  preceding  night  and  day,  which  rendered  it  impossible 
for  cavalry  or  artillery  to  maneuver  on  it  till  a  few  hours  of 
dry  weather  had  given  it  its  natural  consistency.  It  has  been 
supposed,  also,  that  he  trusted  to  the  effect  which  the  sight 
of  the  imposing  array  of  his  own  forces  was  likely  to  produce 
on  the  part  of  the  allied  army.  The  Belgian  regiments  had 
been  tampered  with,  and  Napoleon  had  well-founded  hopes 
of  seeing  them  quit  the  Duke  of  Wellington  in  a  body  and 
range  themselves  under  his  own  eagles.  The  duke,  however, 
who  knew  and  did  not  trust  them,  had  guarded  against  the 
risk  of  this  by  breaking  up  the  corps  of  Belgians  and  dis- 
tributing them  in  separate  regiments  among  troops  on  whom 
he  could  rely. 

At  last,  at  about  half-past  eleven  o'clock,  Napoleon  began 
the  battle  by  directing  a  powerful  force  from  his  left  wing 
under  his  brother,  Prince  Jerome,  to  attack   Hougoumont. 


1815]  BATTLE   OF  WATERLOO  395 

Column  after  column  of  the  French  now  descended  from  the 
west  of  the  southern  heights  and  assailed  that  post  with  fiery- 
valor,  which  was  encountered  with  the  most  determined  brav- 
ery. The  French  won  the  copse  round  the  house,  but  a  party 
of  the  British  Guards  held  the  house  itself  throughout  the 
day.  The  whole  of  Byng's  brigade  was  required  to  man  this 
hotly  contested  post.  Amid  shell  and  shot,  and  the  blazing 
fragments  of  part  of  the  buildings,  this  obstinate  contest  was 
continued.  But  still  the  English  were  firm  in  Hougoumont, 
though  the  French  occasionally  moved  forward  in  such  num- 
bers as  enabled  them  to  surround  and  mask  it  with  part  of 
their  troops  from  their  left  wing,  while  others  pressed  onward 
up  the  slope  and  assailed  the  British  right. 

The  cannonade,  which  commenced  at  first  between  the 
British  right  and  the  French  left,  in  consequence  of  the  attack 
on  Hougoumont,  soon  became  general  along  both  lines ;  and, 
about  one  o'clock,  Napoleon  directed  a  grand  attack  to  be 
made  under  Marshal  Ney  upon  the  center  and  left  wing  of 
the  allied  army.  For  this  purpose  four  columns  of  infantry, 
amounting  to  about  eighteen  thousand  men,  were  collected, 
supported  by  a  strong  division  of  cavalry  under  the  celebrated 
Kellermann ;  and  seventy-four  guns  were  brought  forward 
ready  to  be  posted  on  the  ridge  of  a  little  undulation  of  the 
ground  in  the  interval  between  the  two  principal  chains  of 
heights,  so  as  to  bring  their  fire  to  bear  on  the  duke's  line 
at  a  range  of  about  seven  hundred  yards.  By  the  combined 
assault  of  these  formidable  forces,  led  on  by  Ney,  "  the  brav- 
est of  the  brave,"  Napoleon  hoped  to  force  the  left  center  of 
the  British  position,  to  take  La  Haye  Sainte,  and  then,  press- 
ing forward,  to  occupy  also  the  farm  of  Mont  St.  Jean.  He 
then  could  cut  the  mass  of  Wellington's  troops  off  from  their 
line  of  retreat  upon  Brussels  and  from  their  own  left,  and 
also  completely  sever  them  from  any  Prussian  troops  that 
might  be  approaching. 

The  columns  destined  for  this  great  and  decisive  operation 
descended  majestically  from  the  French  line  of  hills  and 
gained  the  ridge  of  the  intervening  eminence,  on  which  the 
batteries  that  supported  them  were  now  ranged.  As  the 
columns  descended  again  from  this  eminence,  the  seventy- 
four  guns  opened  over  their  heads  with  terrible  effect  upon 


396  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1815 

the  troops  of  the  Allies  that  were  stationed  on  the  heights 
to  the  left  of  the  Charleroi  road.  One  of  the  French  col- 
umns kept  to  the  east  and  attacked  the  extreme  left  of  the 
Allies ;  the  other  three  continued  to  move  rapidly  forwards 
upon  the  left  center  of  the  allied  position.  The  front  line  of 
the  Allies  here  was  composed  of  Bylandt's  brigade  of  Dutch 
and  Belgians.  As  the  French  columns  moved  up  the  south- 
ward slope  of  the  height  on  which  the  Dutch  and  Belgians 
stood,  and  the  skirmishers  in  advance  began  to  open  their  fire, 
Bylandt's  entire  brigade  turned  and  fled  in  disgraceful  and 
disorderly  panic ;  but  there  were  men  more  worthy  of  the 
name  behind. 

In  this  part  of  the  second  line  of  the  allies  were  posted  Pack 
and  Kempt's  brigades  of  English  infantry,  which  had  suffered 
severely  at  Quatre  Bras.  But  Picton  was  here  as  general  of 
division,  and  not  even  Ney  himself  surpassed  in  resolute  brav- 
ery that  stern  and  fiery  spirit.  Picton  brought  his  two  bri- 
gades forward,  side  by  side,  in  a  thin,  two-deep  line.  Thus 
joined  together,  they  were  not  three  thousand  strong.  With 
these  Picton  had  to  make  head  against  the  three  victorious 
French  columns,  upwards  of  four  times  that  strength,  and 
who,  encouraged  by  the  easy  rout  of  the  Dutch  and  Belgians, 
now  came  confidently  over  the  ridge  of  the  hill.  The  British 
infantry  stood  firm ;  and  as  the  French  halted  and  began  to 
deploy  into  line,  Picton  seized  the  critical  moment.  He 
shouted  in  his  stentorian  voice  to  Kempt's  brigade :  "  A  vol- 
ley, and  then  charge!"  At  a  distance  of  less  than  thirty 
yards  that  volley  was  poured  upon  the  devoted  first  sections 
of  the  nearest  column ;  and  then,  with  a  fierce  hurrah,  the 
British  dashed  in  with  the  bayonet.  Picton  was  shot  dead  as 
he  rushed  forward,  but  his  men  pushed  on  with  the  cold 
steel.  The  French  reeled  back  in  confusion.  Pack's  infan- 
try had  checked  the  other  two  columns,  and  down  came  a 
whirlwind  of  British  horse  on  the  whole  mass,  sending  them 
staggering  from  the  crest  of  the  hill  and  cutting  them  down 
by  whole  battalions.  Ponsonby's  brigade  of  heavy  cavalry 
(the  Union  Brigade,  as  it  was  called,  from  its  being  made  up 
of  the  British  Royals,  the  Scots  Greys,  and  the  Irish  Innis- 
killings)  did  this  good  service.  On  went  the  horsemen  amid 
the  wrecks  of  the  French  columns,  capturing  two  eagles  and 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  397 

two  thousand  prisoners ;  onward  still  they  galloped,  and 
sabered  the  artillerymen  of  Ney's  seventy-four  advanced  guns ; 
then  severing  the  traces  and  cutting  the  throats  of  the  artil- 
lery horses,  they  rendered  these  guns  totally  useless  to  the 
French  throughout  the  remainder  of  the  day.  While  thus 
far  advanced  beyond  the  British  position  and  disordered  by 
success,  they  were  charged  by  a  large  body  of  French  lancers 
and  driven  back  with  severe  loss,  till  Vandeleur's  light-horse 
came  to  their  aid  and  beat  off  the  French  lancers  in  their 
turn. 

Equally  unsuccessful  with  the  advance  of  the  French 
infantry  in  this  grand  attack  had  been  the  efforts  of  the 
French  cavalry  who  moved  forward  in  support  of  it,  along  the 
east  of  the  Charleroi  road.  Somerset's  cavalry  of  the  Eng- 
lish Household  Brigade  had  been  launched,  on  the  right  of 
Picton's  division,  against  the  French  horse,  at  the  same  time 
that  the  English  Union  Brigade  of  heavy-horse  charged  the 
French  infantry  columns  on  the  left. 

Somerset's  brigade  was  formed  of  the  Life  Guards,  the 
Blues,  and  the  Dragoon  Guards.  The  hostile  cavalry,  which 
Kellermann  led  forward,  consisted  chiefly  of  cuirassiers.  This 
steel-clad  mass  of  French  horsemen  rode  down  some  com- 
panies of  German  infantry,  near  La  Haye  Sainte,  and,  flushed 
with  success,  they  bounded  onward  to  the  ridge  of  the  British 
position.  The  English  Household  Brigade,  led  on  by  the 
Earl  of  Uxbridge  in  person,  spurred  forward  to  the  en- 
counter, and  in  an  instant  the  two  adverse  lines  of  strong 
swordsmen,  on  their  strong  steeds,  dashed  furiously  together. 
A  desperate  and  sanguinary  hand-to-hand  fight  ensued,  in 
which  the  physical  superiority  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  guided 
by  equal  skill  and  animated  with  equal  valor,  was  made  deci- 
sively manifest.  Back  went  the  chosen  cavalry  of  France ; 
and  after  them,  in  hot  pursuit,  spurred  the  English  Guards. 
They  went  forward  as  far  and  as  fiercely  as  their  comrades 
of  the  Union  Brigade ;  and,  like  them,  the  Household  cav- 
alry suffered  severely  before  they  regained  the  British  posi- 
tion, after  their  magnificent  charge  and  adventurous  pursuit. 

Napoleon's  grand  effort  to  break  the  English  left  center 
had  thus  completely  failed ;  and  his  right  wing  was  seriously 
weakened  by  the  heavy  loss  which  it  had  sustained.     Hougou- 


398  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1815 

mont  was  still  being  assailed,  and  was  still  successfully  resist- 
ing. Troops  were  now  beginning  to  appear  at  the  edge  of 
the  horizon  on  Napoleon's  right,  which  he  too  well  knew  to 
be  Prussian,  though  he  endeavored  to  persuade  his  followers 
that  they  were  Grouchy's  men  coming  to  their  aid. 

Grouchy  was,  in  fact,  now  engaged  at  Wavre  with  his 
whole  force  against  Thielman's  single  Prussian  corps,  while 
the  other  three  corps  of  the  Pussian  army  were  moving  with- 
out opposition,  save  from  the  difficulties  of  the  ground,  upon 
Waterloo.  Grouchy  believed,  on  the  17th,  and  caused  Napo- 
leon to  believe,  that  the  Prussian  army  was  retreating  by 
lines  of  march  remote  from  Waterloo  upon  Namur  and 
Maestricht.  Napoleon  learned  only  on  the  18th  that  there 
were  Prussians  in  Wavre,  and  felt  jealous  about  the  security 
of  his  own  right.  He  accordingly,  before  he  attacked  the 
English,  sent  Grouchy  orders  to  engage  the  Prussians  at 
Wavre  without  delay,  and  to  approach  the  main  French  army, 
so  as  to  unite  his  communication  with  the  emperor  s.  Grouchy 
entirely  neglected  this  last  part  of  his  instructions ;  and  in 
attacking  the  Prussians  whom  he  found  at  Wavre,  he  spread 
his  force  more  and  more  towards  his  right,  that  is  to  say,  in 
the  direction  most  remote  from  Napoleon.  He  thus  knew 
nothing  of  Blucher's  and  Bulow's  flank  march  upon  Waterloo 
till  six  in  the  evening  of  the  18th,  when  he  received  a  note 
which  Soult,  by  Napoleon's  orders,  had  sent  off  from  the 
field  of  battle  at  Waterloo  at  one  o'clock,  to  inform  Grouchy 
that  Bulow  was  coming  over  the  heights  of  St.  Lambert,  on 
the  emperor's  right  flank,  and  directing  Grouchy  to  approach 
and  join  the  main  army  instantly,  and  crush  Bulow  en  flagrant 
de'lit.  It  was  then  too  late  for  Grouchy  to  obey;  but  it  is 
remarkable  that  as  early  as  noon  on  the  18th,  and  while 
Grouchy  had  not  proceeded  as  far  as  Wavre,  he  and  his  suite 
heard  the  sound  of  heavy  cannonading  in  the  direction  of 
Planchenoit  and  Mont  St.  Jean.  General  Gerard,  who  was 
with  Grouchy,  implored  him  to  march  towards  the  cannon- 
ade and  join  his  operations  with  those  of  Napoleon,  who 
was  evidently  engaged  with  the  English.  Grouchy  refused 
to  do  so  or  even  to  detach  part  of  his  force  in  that  direction. 
He  said  that  his  instructions  were  to  fight  the  Prussians  at 
Wavre.     He  marched  upon  Wavre,  and  fought  for  the  rest 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  399 

of  the  day  with  Thielman  accordingly,  while  Bliicher  and 
Bulow  were  attacking  the  emperor.6 

Napoleon  had  witnessed  with  bitter  disappointment  the  rout 
of  his  troops  —  foot,  horse,  and  artillery  —  which  attacked  the 
left  center  of  the  English,  and  the  obstinate  resistance  which 
the  garrison  of  Hougoumont  opposed  to  all  the  exertions  of 
his  left  wing.  He  now  caused  the  batteries  along  the  line 
of  high  ground  held  by  him  to  be  strengthened,  and  for  some 
time  an  unremitting  and  most  destructive  cannonade  raged 
across  the  valley,  to  the  partial  cessation  of  other  conflict. 
But  the  superior  fire  of  the  French  artillery,  though  it  weak- 
ened, could  not  break  the  British  line,  and  more  close  and 
summary  measures  were  requisite. 

It  was  now  about  half-past  three  o'clock  ;  and  though  Well- 
ington's army  had  suffered  severely  by  the  unremitting  can- 
nonade, and  in  the  late  desperate  encounter,  no  part  of  the 
British  position  had  been  forced.  Napoleon  determined  there- 
fore to  try  what  effect  he  could  produce  on  the  British  center 
and  right  by  charges  of  his  splendid  cavalry,  brought  on  in 
such  force  that  the  duke's  cavalry  could  not  check  them. 
Fresh  troops  were  at  the  same  time  sent  to  assail  La  Haye 
Sainte  and  Hougoumont,  the  possession  of  these  posts  being 
the  emperor's  unceasing  object.  Squadron  after  squadron  of 
the  French  cuirassiers  accordingly  ascended  the  slopes  on  the 
duke's  right  and  rode  forward  with  dauntless  courage  against 
the  batteries  of  the  British  artillery  in  that  part  of  the  field. 
The  artillerymen  were  driven  from  their  guns,  and  the  cuiras- 
siers cheered  loudly  at  their  supposed  triumph.  But  the 
duke  had  formed  his  infantry  in  squares,  and  the  cuirassiers 
charged  in  vain  against  the  impenetrable  hedges  of  bayonets, 
while  the  fire  from  the  inner  ranks  of  the  squares  told  with 
terrible  effect  on  their  squadrons.  Time  after  time  they 
rode  forward,  with  invariably  the  same  result ;  and  as  they 
receded  from  each  attack  the  British  artillerymen  rushed 
forward  from  the  centers  of  the  squares,  where  they  had 
taken  refuge,  and  plied  their  guns  on  the  retiring  horsemen.7 
Nearly  the  whole  of  Napoleon's  magnificent  body  of  heavy 
cavalry  was  destroyed  in  these  fruitless  attempts  upon  the 
British  right.  But  in  another  part  of  the  field  fortune  favored 
him  for  a  time.    Two  French  columns  of  infantry  from  Donze- 


400  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1815 

lot's  division  took  La  Haye  Sainte  between  six  and  seven 
o'clock,  and  the  means  were  now  given  for  organizing  an- 
other formidable  attack  on  the  center  of  the  Allies. 

There  was  no  time  to  be  lost — Bliicher  and  Bulow  were 
beginning  to  press  hard  upon  the  French  right.  As  early  as 
five  o'clock,  Napoleon  had  been  obliged  to  detach  Lobau's 
infantry  and  Domont's  horse  to  check  these  new  enemies. 
They  succeeded  in  doing  so  for  a  time ;  but  as  larger  num- 
bers of  the  Prussians  came  on  the  field,  they  turned  Lobau's 
right  flank  and  sent  a  strong  force  to  seize  the  village  of 
Planchenoit,  which,  it  will  be  remembered,  lay  in  the  rear  of 
the  French  right. 

The  design  of  the  Allies  was  not  merely  to  prevent  Napo- 
leon from  advancing  upon  Brussels,  but  to  cut  off  his  line  of 
retreat  and  utterly  destroy  his  army.  The  defense  of  Planche- 
noit therefore  became  absolutely  essential  for  the  safety  of 
the  French,  and  Napoleon  was  obliged  to  send  his  Young 
Guard  to  occupy  that  village,  which  was  accordingly  held  by 
them  with  great  gallantry  against  the  reiterated  assaults  of 
the  Prussian  left,  under  Bulow.  Three  times  did  the  Prus- 
sians fight  their  way  into  Planchenoit,  and  as  often  did  the 
French  drive  them  out;  the  contest  was  maintained  with  the 
fiercest  desperation  on  both  sides,  such  being  the  animosity 
between  the  two  nations  that  quarter  was  seldom  given  or 
even  asked.  Other  Prussian  forces  were  now  appearing  on 
the  field  nearer  to  the  English  left,  whom  also  Napoleon 
kept  in  check  by  troops  detached  for  that  purpose.  Thus 
a  large  part  of  the  French  army  was  now  thrown  back  on 
a  line  at  right  angles  with  the  line  of  that  portion  which  still 
confronted  and  assailed  the  English  position.  But  this  por- 
tion was  now  numerically  inferior  to  the  force  under  the  Duke 
of  Wellington,  which  Napoleon  had  been  assailing  through- 
out the  day,  without  gaining  any  other  advantage  than  the 
capture  of  La  Haye  Sainte.  It  is  true  that,  owing  to  the 
gross  misconduct  of  the  greater  part  of  the  Dutch  and 
Belgian  troops,  the  duke  was  obliged  to  rely  exclusively  on 
his  English  and  German  soldiers,  and  the  ranks  of  these  had 
been  fearfully  thinned ;  but  the  survivors  stood  their  ground 
heroically,  and  opposed  a  resolute  front  to  every  forward 
movement  of  their  enemies. 


1815]  BATTLE   OF  WATERLOO  40 1 

On  no  point  of  the  British  line  was  the  pressure  more 
severe  than  on  Halkett's  brigade  in  the  right  center,  which 
was  composed  of  battalions  of  the  30th,  the  33d,  the  69th, 
and  the  73d  British  regiments.  We  fortunately  can  quote 
from  the  journal  of  a  brave  officer  of  the  30th  a  narrative 
of  what  took  place  in  this  part  of  the  field.  The  late  Major 
Macready  served  at  Waterloo  in  the  light  company  of  the 
30th.  The  extent  of  the  peril  and  the  carnage  which  Hal- 
kett's brigade  had  to  encounter  may  be  judged  of  by  the 
fact  that  this  light  company  marched  into  the  field  three 
officers  and  fifty-one  men,  and  that  at  the  end  of  the  battle 
they  stood  one  officer  and  ten  men.  Major  Macready's  blunt 
soldierly  account  of  what  he  actually  saw  and  felt  gives  a  far 
better  idea  of  the  terrific  scene  than  can  be  gained  from  the 
polished  generalizations  which  the  conventional  style  of  his- 
tory requires,  or  even  from  the  glowing  stanzas  of  the  poet. 
During  the  earlier  part  of  the  day  Macready  and  his  light 
company  were  thrown  forward  as  skirmishers  in  front  of  the 
brigade ;  but  when  the  French  cavalry  commenced  their 
attacks  on  the  British  right  center,  he  and  his  comrades  were 
ordered  back.  The  brave  soldier  thus  himself  describes 
what  passed :  — 

"  Before  the  commencement  of  this  attack  our  company 
and  the  grenadiers  of  the  73d  were  skirmishing  briskly  in 
the  low  ground,  covering  our  guns  and  annoying  those  of 
the  enemy.  The  line  of  tirailleurs  opposed  to  us  was  not 
stronger  than  our  own,  but  on  a  sudden  they  were  reenforced 
by  numerous  bodies,  and  several  guns  began  playing  on  us 
with  canister.  Our  poor  fellows  dropped  very  fast,  and 
Colonel  Vigoureux,  Rumley,  and  Pratt  were  carried  off  badly 
wounded  in  about  two  minutes.  I  was  now  commander  of 
our  company.  We  stood  under  this  hurricane  of  small  shot 
till  Halkett  sent  to  order  us  in,  and  I  brought  away  about 
a  third  of  the  light  bobs ;  the  rest  were  killed  or  wounded, 
and  I  really  wonder  how  one  of  them  escaped.  As  our 
bugler  was  killed,  I  shouted  and  made  signals  to  move  by 
the  left,  in  order  to  avoid  the  fire  of  our  guns  and  to  put 
as  good  a  face  upon  the  business  as  possible. 

"  When  I  reached  Lloyd's  abandoned  guns,  I  stood  near 
them  for  about  a  minute  to  contemplate  the  scene :  it  was 


402  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1815 

grand  beyond  description.  Hougoumont  and  its  wood  sent 
up  a  broad  flame  through  the  dark  masses  of  smoke  that 
overhung  the  field;  beneath  this  cloud  the  French  were 
indistinctly  visible.  Here  a  waving  mass  of  long  red  feathers 
could  be  seen ;  there,  gleams  as  from  a  sheet  of  steel  showed 
that  the  cuirassiers  were  moving ;  400  cannon  were  belching 
forth  fire  and  death  on  every  side ;  the  roaring  and  shouting 
were  indistinguishably  commixed  —  together  they  gave  me 
an  idea  of  a  laboring  volcano.  Bodies  of  infantry  and  cav- 
alry were  pouring  down  on  us,  and  it  was  time  to  leave  con- 
templation; so  I  moved  towards  our  columns,  which  were 
standing  up  in  square.  Our  regiment  and  73d  formed  one, 
and  33d  and  69th  another ;  to  our  right  beyond  them  were 
the  Guards,  and  on  our  left  the  Hanoverians  and  German 
Legion  of  our  division.  As  I  entered  the  rear  face  of  our 
square  I  had  to  step  over  a  body,  and,  looking  down,  recog- 
nized Harry  Beere,  an  officer  of  our  grenadiers,  who  about 
an  hour  before  shook  hands  with  me,  laughing,  as  I  left  the 
columns.  I  was  on  the  usual  terms  of  military  intimacy  with 
poor  Harry  —  that  is  to  say,  if  either  of  us  had  died  a  natural 
death,  the  other  would  have  pitied  him  as  a  good  fellow,  and 
smiled  at  his  neighbor  as  he  congratulated  him  on  the  step ; 
but  seeing  his  herculean  frame  and  animated  countenance 
thus  suddenly  stiff  and  motionless  before  me  (I  know  not 
whence  the  feeling  could  originate,  for  I  had  just  seen  my 
dearest  friend  drop,  almost  with  indifference),  the  tears 
started  in  my  eyes  as  I  sighed  out,  '  Poor  Harry ! '  The 
tear  was  not  dry  on  my  cheek  when  poor  Harry  was  no 
longer  thought  of.  In  a  few  minutes  after,  the  enemy's 
cavalry  galloped  up  and  crowned  the  crest  of  our  position. 
Our  guns  were  abandoned,  and  they  formed  between  the 
two  brigades,  about  a  hundred  paces  in  our  front.  Their 
first  charge  was  magnificent.  As  soon  as  they  quickened 
their  trot  into  a  gallop,  the  cuirassiers  bent  their  heads  so 
that  the  peaks  of  their  helmets  looked  like  vizors,  and  they 
seemed  cased  in  armor  from  the  plume  to  the  saddle.  Not 
a  shot  was  fired  till  they  were  within  thirty  yards,  when  the 
word  was  given  and  our  men  fired  away  at  them.  The 
effect  was  magical.  Through  the  smoke  we  could  see  hel- 
mets falling,  cavaliers  starting  from  their  seats  with  convul- 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  403 

sive  springs  as  they  received  our  balls,  horses  plunging  and 
rearing  in  the  agonies  of  fright  and  pain,  and  crowds  of  the 
soldiery  dismounted,  part  of  the  squadron  in  retreat,  but  the 
more  daring  remainder  backing  their  horses  to  force  them 
on  our  bayonets.  Our  fire  soon  disposed  of  these  gentle- 
men. The  main  body  re-formed  in  our  front,  and  rapidly 
and  gallantly  repeated  their  attacks.  In  fact,  from  this  time 
(about  four  o'clock)  till  near  six,  we  had  a  constant  repeti- 
tion of  these  brave  but  unavailing  charges.  There  was  no 
difficulty  in  repulsing  them,  but  our  ammunition  decreased 
alarmingly.  At  length  an  artillery  wagon  galloped  up, 
emptied  two  or  three  casks  of  cartridges  into  the  square, 
and  we  were  all  comfortable. 

"  The  best  cavalry  is  contemptible  to  a  steady  and  well- 
supplied  infantry  regiment ;  even  our  men  saw  this,  and  be- 
gan to  pity  the  useless  perseverance  of  their  assailants,  and, 
as  they  advanced,  would  growl  out,  '  Here  come  these  fools 
again  ! '  One  of  their  superior  officers  tried  a  ruse  de  guerre, 
by  advancing  and  dropping  his  sword,  as  though  he  sur- 
rendered ;  some  of  us  were  deceived  by  him,  but  Halkett 
ordered  the  men  to  fire,  and  he  coolly  retired,  saluting  us. 
Their  devotion  was  invincible.  One  officer  whom  we  had 
taken  prisoner  was  asked  what  force  Napoleon  might  have 
in  the  field,  and  replied  with  a  smile  of  mingled  derision  and 
threatening,  '  Vous  verrez  bientot  sa  force,  messieurs  ! '  A 
private  cuirassier  was  wounded  and  dragged  into  the  square ; 
his  only  cry  was,  '  Tuez  done,  tuez,  tuez  moi,  soldats ! '  and 
as  one  of  our  men  dropped  dead  close  to  him,  he  seized  his 
bayonet  and  forced  it  into  his  own  neck ;  but  this  not 
despatching  him,  he  raised  up  his  cuirass  and,  plunging  the 
bayonet  into  his  stomach,  kept  working  it  about  till  he  ceased 
to  breathe. 

"  Though  we  constantly  thrashed  our  steel-clad  opponents, 
we  found  more  troublesome  customers  in  the  round  shot  and 
grape,  which  all  this  time  played  on  us  with  terrible  effect 
and  fully  avenged  the  cuirassiers.  Often  as  the  volleys  created 
openings  in  our  square  would  the  cavalry  dash  on,  but  they 
were  uniformly  unsuccessful.  A  regiment  on  our  right 
seemed  sadly  disconcerted,  and  at  one  moment  was  in  con- 
siderable confusion.     Halkett  rode  out  to  them,  and,  seizing 


404  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1815 

their  color,  waved  it  over  his  head  and  restored  them  to 
something  like  order,  though  not  before  his  horse  was  shot 
under  him.  At  the  height  of  their  unsteadiness  we  got  the 
order  to  '  right  face  '  to  move  to  their  assistance  ;  some  of  the 
men  mistook  it  for  '  right  about  face,'  and  faced  accordingly, 
when  old  Major  M'Laine,  73d,  called  out,  '  No,  my  boys,  it's 
"right  face"  ;  you'll  never  hear  the  right  about  as  long  as  a 
French  bayonet  is  in  front  of  you  ! '  In  a  few  moments  he 
was  mortally  wounded.  A  regiment  of  light  dragoons,  by 
their  facings  either  the  16th  or  23d,  came  up  to  our  left  and 
charged  the  cuirassiers.  We  cheered  each  other  as  they 
passed  us ;  they  did  all  they  could,  but  were  obliged  to  retire 
after  a  few  minutes  at  the  saber.  A  body  of  Belgian  cavalry 
advanced  for  the  same  purpose,  but  on  passing  our  square 
they  stopped  short.  Our  noble  Halkett  rode  out  to  them  and 
offered  to  charge  at  their  head ;  it  was  of  no  use ;  the  Prince 
of  Orange  came  up  and  exhorted  them  to  do  their  duty,  but 
in  vain.  They  hesitated  till  a  few  shots  whizzed  through 
them,  when  they  turned  about  and  galloped  like  fury,  or, 
rather,  like  fear.  As  they  passed  the  right  face  of  our  square 
the  men,  irritated  by  their  rascally  conduct,  unanimously  took 
up  their  pieces  and  fired  a  volley  into  them,  and  '  many  a  good 
fellow  was  destroyed  so  cowardly.' 

"  The  enemy's  cavalry  were  by  this  time  nearly  disposed 
of,  and  as  they  had  discovered  the  inutility  of  their  charges, 
they  commenced  annoying  us  by  a  spirited  and  well-directed 
carbine  fire.  While  we  were  employed  in  this  manner  it  was 
impossible  to  see  farther  than  the  columns  on  our  right  and 
left,  but  I  imagine  most  of  the  army  were  similarly  situated  : 
all  the  British  and  Germans  were  doing  their  duty.  About 
six  o'clock  I  perceived  some  artillery  trotting  up  our  hill, 
which  I  knew  by  their  caps  to  belong  to  the  Imperial  Guard. 
I  had  hardly  mentioned  this  to  a  brother  officer  when  two 
guns  unlimbered  within  seventy  paces  of  us,  and,  by  their 
first  discharge  of  grape,  blew  seven  men  into  the  center  of 
the  square.  They  immediately  reloaded,  and  kept  up  a  con- 
stant and  destructive  fire.  It  was  noble  to  see  our  fellows  fill 
up  the  gaps  after  every  discharge.  I  was  much  distressed  at 
this  moment ;  having  ordered  up  three  of  my  light  bobs, 
they  had  hardly  taken  their  station  when  two  of  them  fell, 


1815]  BATTLE   OF  WATERLOO  405 

horribly  lacerated.  One  of  them  looked  up  in  my  face  and 
uttered  a  sort  of  reproachful  groan,  and  I  involuntarily  ex- 
claimed, '  I  couldn't  help  it.'  We  would  willingly  have  charged 
these  guns,  but,  had  we  deployed,  the  cavalry  that  flanked 
them  would  have  made  an  example  of  us. 

"  The  '  vivida  vis  animi '  —  the  glow  which  fires  one  upon 
entering  into  action  —  had  ceased ;  it  was  now  to  be  seen 
which  side  had  most  bottom,  and  would  stand  killing  longest. 
The  duke  visited  us  frequently  at  this  momentous  period ; 
he  was  coolness  personified.  As  he  crossed  the  rear  face  of 
our  square  a  shell  fell  amongst  our  grenadiers,  and  he  checked 
his  horse  to  see  its  effect.  Some  men  were  blown  to  pieces 
by  the  explosion,  and  he  merely  stirred  the  rein  of  his  charger, 
apparently  as  little  concerned  at  their  fate  as  at  his  own  dan- 
ger. No  leader  ever  possessed  so  fully  the  confidence  of  his 
soldiery :  wherever  he  appeared,  a  murmur  of  '  Silence  !  Stand 
to  your  front !  Here's  the  duke  !  '  was  heard  through  the 
column,  and  then  all  was  steady  as  on  a  parade.  His  aides-de- 
camp, Colonels  Canning  and  Gordon,  fell  near  our  square,  and 
the  former  died  within  it.  As  he  came  near  us  late  in  the 
evening,  Halkett  rode  out  to  him  and  represented  our  weak 
state,  begging  his  Grace  to  afford  us  a  little  support.  '  It's 
impossible,  Halkett,'  said  he.  And  our  general  replied,  '  If 
so,  sir,  you  may  depend  on  the  brigade  to  a  man  ! '  " 

All  accounts  of  the  battle  show  that  the  duke  was  ever 
present  at  each  spot  where  danger  seemed  the  most  pressing, 
inspiriting  his  men  by  a  few  homely  and  good-humored  words 
and  restraining  their  impatience  to  be  led  forward  to  attack 
in  their  turn.  "  Hard  pounding  this,  gentlemen  :  we  will  try 
who  can  pound  the  longest,"  was  his  remark  to  a  battalion 
on  which  the  storm  from  the  French  guns  was  pouring  with 
peculiar  fury.  Riding  up  to  one  of  the  squares,  which  had 
been  dreadfully  weakened  and  against  which  a  fresh  attack 
of  French  cavalry  was  coming,  he  called  to  them  :  "  Stand 
firm,  my  lads  ;  what  will  they  say  of  this  in  England  ?  "  As 
he  rode  along  another  part  of  the  line,  where  the  men  had  for 
some  time  been  falling  fast  beneath  the  enemy's  cannonade 
without  having  any  close  fighting,  a  murmur  reached  his  ear 
of  natural  eagerness  to  advance  and  do  something  more  than 
stand  still  to  be  shot  at.     The  duke  called  to  them  :  "  Wait  a 


406  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1815 

little  longer,  my  lads,  and  you  shall  have  your  wish."  The 
men  were  instantly  satisfied  and  steady.  It  was,  indeed,  in- 
dispensable for  the  duke  to  bide  his  time.  The  premature 
movement  of  a  single  corps  down  from  the  British  line  of 
heights  would  have  endangered  the  whole  position,  and  have 
probably  made  Waterloo  a  second  Hastings. 

But  the  duke  inspired  all  under  him  with  his  own  spirit  of 
patient  firmness.  When  other  generals  besides  Halkett  sent 
to  him  begging  for  reenforcements,  or  for  leave  to  withdraw 
corps  which  were  reduced  to  skeletons,  the  answer  was  the 
same :  "  It  is  impossible  ;  you  must  hold  your  ground  to  the 
last  man,  and  all  will  be  well."  He  gave  a  similar  reply  to 
some  of  his  staff  who  asked  instructions  from  him,  so  that, 
in  the  event  of  his  falling,  his  successor  might  follow  out  his 
plan.  He  answered,  "  My  plan  is  simply  to  stand  my  ground 
here  to  the  last  man."  His  personal  danger  was  indeed 
imminent  throughout  the  day ;  and  though  he  escaped  with- 
out injury  to  himself  or  horse,  one  only  of  his  numerous  staff 
was  equally  fortunate.8 

Napoleon  had  stationed  himself  during  the  battle  on  a  little 
hillock  near  La  Belle  Alliance,  in  the  center  of  the  French 
position.  Here  he  was  seated,  with  a  large  table  from  the 
neighboring  farmhouse  before  him,  on  which  maps  and  plans 
were  spread ;  and  thence  with  his  telescope  he  surveyed  the 
various  points  of  the  field.  Soult  watched  his  orders  close  at 
his  left  hand,  and  his  staff  was  grouped  on  horseback  a  few 
paces  in  the  rear.9  Here  he  remained  till  near  the  close  of 
the  day,  preserving  the  appearance  at  least  of  calmness, 
except  some  expressions  of  irritation  which  escaped  him 
when  Ney's  attack  on  the  British  left  center  was  defeated. 
But  now  that  the  crisis  of  the  battle  was  evidently  approach- 
ing, he  mounted  a  white  Persian  charger,  which  he  rode  in 
action  because  the  troops  easily  recognized  him  by  the  horse's 
color.  He  had  still  the  means  of  effecting  a  retreat.  His 
Old  Guard  had  yet  taken  no  part  in  the  action.  Under  cover 
of  it,  he  might  have  withdrawn  his  shattered  forces  and  re- 
tired upon  the  French  frontier.  But  this  would  only  have 
given  the  English  and  Prussians  the  opportunity  of  complet- 
ing their  junction ;  and  he  knew  that  other  armies  were  fast 
coming  up  to  aid  them  in  a  march  upon  Paris,  if  he  should 


x8is]  BATTLE   OF  WATERLOO  407 

succeed  in  avoiding  an  encounter  with  them  and  retreating 
upon  the  capital.  A  victory  at  Waterloo  was  his  only  alter- 
native from  utter  ruin,  and  he  determined  to  employ  his 
Guard  in  one  bold  stroke  more  to  make  that  victory  his  own. 
Between  seven  and  eight  o'clock  the  infantry  of  the  Old 
Guard  was  formed  into  two  columns,  on  the  declivity  near 
La  Belle  Alliance.  Ney  was  placed  at  their  head.  Napo- 
leon himself  rode  forward  to  a  spot  by  which  his  veterans 
were  to  pass ;  and,  as  they  approached,  he  raised  his  arm 
and  pointed  to  the  position  of  the  Allies,  as  if  to  tell  them 
that  their  path  lay  there.  They  answered  with  loud  cries  of 
"Vive  l'Empereur !  "  and  descended  the  hill  from  their  own 
side,  into  that  "valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,"  while  the 
batteries  thundered  with  redoubled  vigor  over  their  heads 
upon  the  British  line.  The  line  of  march  of  the  columns  of 
the  Guard  was  directed  between  Hougoumont  and  La  Haye 
Sainte,  against  the  British  right  center;  and  at  the  same 
time  the  French  under  Donzelot,  who  had  possession  of  La 
Haye  Sainte,  commenced  a  fierce  attack  upon  the  British 
center,  a  little  more  to  its  left.  This  part  of  the  battle  has 
drawn  less  attention  than  the  celebrated  attack  of  the  Old 
Guard ;  but  it  formed  the  most  perilous  crisis  for  the  allied 
army ;  and  if  the  Young  Guard  had  been  there  to  support 
Donzelot,  instead  of  being  engaged  with  the  Prussians  at 
Planchenoit,  the  consequences  to  the  Allies  in  that  part  of  the 
field  must  have  been  most  serious.  The  French  tirailleurs, 
who  were  posted  in  clouds  in  La  Haye  Sainte  and  the  shel- 
tered spots  near  it,  picked  off  the  artillerymen  of  the  English 
batteries  near  them ;  and,  taking  advantage  of  the  disabled 
state  of  the  English  guns,  the  French  brought  some  field- 
pieces  up  to  La  Haye  Sainte  and  commenced  firing  grape 
from  them  on  the  infantry  of  the  Allies,  at  a  distance  of  not 
more  than  a  hundred  paces.  The  allied  infantry  here  con- 
sisted of  some  German  brigades,  who  were  formed  in  squares, 
as  it  was  believed  that  Donzelot  had  cavalry  ready  behind  La 
Haye  Sainte  to  charge  them  with  if  they  left  that  order  of 
formation.  In  this  state  the  Germans  remained  for  some 
time  with  heroic  fortitude,  though  the  grape-shot  was  tearing 
gaps  in  their  ranks  and  the  side  of  one  square  was  literally 
blown   away  by  one   tremendous  volley   which  the    French 


408  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1815 

gunners  poured  into  it.  The  Prince  of  Orange  in  vain 
endeavored  to  lead  some  Nassau  troops  to  the  aid  of  the 
brave  Germans.  The  Nassauers  would  not  or  could  not  face 
the  French ;  and  some  battalions  of  Brunswickers,  whom  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  had  ordered  up  as  a  reenforcement,  at 
first  fell  back,  until  the  duke  in  person  rallied  them  and  led 
them  on.  Having  thus  barred  the  farther  advance  of  Don- 
zelot,  the  duke  galloped  off  to  the  right  to  head  his  men  who 
were  exposed  to  the  attack  of  the  Imperial  Guard.  He  had 
saved  one  part  of  his  center  from  being  routed,  but  the 
French  had  gained  ground  and  kept  it ;  and  the  pressure  on 
the  Allied  line  in  front  of  La  Haye  Sainte  was  fearfully 
severe,  until  it  was  relieved  by  the  decisive  success  which  the 
British  in  the  right  center  achieved  over  the  columns  of  the 
Guard. 

The  British  troops  on  the  crest  of  that  part  of  the  position 
which  the  first  column  of  Napoleon's  Guards  assailed  were 
Maitland's  brigade  of  British  Guards,  having  Adams's  brigade 
(which  had  been  brought  forward  during  the  action)  on  their 
right.  Maitland's  men  were  lying  down,  in  order  to  avoid  as 
far  as  possible  the  destructive  effect  of  the  French  artillery, 
which  kept  up  an  unremitting  fire  from  the  opposite  heights, 
until  the  first  column  of  the  Imperial  Guard  had  advanced  so 
far  up  the  slope  towards  the  British  position  that  any  further 
firing  of  the  French  artillerymen  would  have  endangered  their 
own  comrades.  Meanwhile  the  British  guns  were  not  idle ; 
but  shot  and  shell  plowed  fast  through  the  ranks  of  the 
stately  array  of  veterans  that  still  moved  imposingly  on. 
Several  of  the  French  superior  officers  were  at  its  head. 
Ney's  horse  was  shot  under  him,  but  he  still  led  the  way,  on 
foot,  sword  in  hand.  The  front  of  the  massive  column  now 
was  on  the  ridge  of  the  hill.  To  their  surprise  they  saw  no 
troops  before  them.  All  they  could  discern  through  the 
smoke  was  a  small  band  of  mounted  officers.  One  of  them 
was  the  duke  himself.  The  French  advanced  to  about  fifty 
yards  from  where  the  British  guards  were  lying  down,  when 
the  voice  of  one  of  the  group  of  British  officers  was  heard 
calling,  as  if  to  the  ground  before  him,  "  Up,  Guards,  and  at 
them !  "  It  was  the  duke  who  gave  the  order ;  and  at  the 
words,  as  if  by  magic,  up  started  before  them  a  line  of  the 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  4°9 

British  Guards  four  deep,  and  in  the  most  compact  and  per- 
fect order.  They  poured  an  instantaneous  volley  upon  the 
head  of  the  French  column,  by  which  no  less  than  three 
hundred  of  those  chosen  veterans  are  said  to  have  fallen. 
The  French  officers  rushed  forward,  and,  conspicuous  in 
front  of  their  men,  attempted  to  deploy  them  into  a  more 
extended  line,  so  as  to  enable  them  to  reply  with  effect  to  the 
British  fire.  But  Maitland's  brigade  kept  showering  in  volley 
after  volley  with  deadly  rapidity.  The  decimated  column 
grew  disordered  in  its  vain  efforts  to  expand  itself  into  a  more 
efficient  formation.  The  right  word  was  given  at  the  right 
moment  to  the  British  for  the  bayonet  charge,  and  the  bri- 
gade sprang  forward  with  a  loud  cheer  against  their  dismayed 
antagonists.  In  an  instant  the  compact  mass  of  the  French 
spread  out  into  a  rabble,  and  they  fled  back  down  the  hill, 
pursued  by  Maitland's  men,  who,  however,  returned  to  their 
position  in  time  to  take  part  in  the  repulse  of  the  second 
column  of  the  Imperial  Guard. 

This  column  also  advanced  with  great  spirit  and  firmness 
under  the  cannonade  which  was  opened  on  it  and,  passing 
by  the  eastern  wall  of  Hougoumont,  diverged  slightly  to  the 
right  as  it  moved  up  the  slope  towards  the  British  position, 
so  as  to  approach  nearly  the  same  spot  where  the  first  column 
had  surmounted  the  height  and  been  defeated.  This  enabled 
the  British  regiments  of  Adams's  brigade  to  form  a  line  par- 
allel to  the  left  flank  of  the  French  column ;  so  that  while 
the  front  of  this  column  of  French  Guards  had  to  encounter 
the  cannonade  of  the  British  batteries  and  the  musketry  of 
Maitland's  guards,  its  left  flank  was  assailed  with  a  destruc- 
tive fire  by  a  four-deep  body  of  British  infantry,  extending  all 
along  it.  In  such  a  position  all  the  bravery  and  skill  of  the 
French  veterans  were  vain.  The  second  column,  like  its  pred- 
ecessor, broke  and  fled,  taking  at  first  a  lateral  direction 
along  the  front  of  the  British  line  towards  the  rear  of  La 
Haye  Sainte,  and  so  becoming  blended  with  the  divisions  of 
French  infantry  which  under  Donzelot  had  been  assailing  the 
Allies  so  formidably  in  that  quarter.  The  sight  of  the  Old 
Guard  broken  and  in  flight  checked  the  ardor  which  Don- 
zelot's  troops  had  hitherto  displayed.  They,  too,  began  to 
waver.     Adams's  victorious  brigade  was  pressing  after  the 


410  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1815 

flying  Guard,  and  now  cleared  away  the  assailants  of  the 
allied  center.  But  the  battle  was  not  yet  won.  Napoleon 
had  still  some  battalions  in  reserve  near  La  Belle  Alliance. 
He  was  rapidly  rallying  the  remains  of  the  first  column  of  his 
Guards,  and  he  had  collected  into  one  body  the  remnants  of 
the  various  corps  of  cavalry  which  had  suffered  so  severely 
in  the  earlier  part  of  the  day.  The  duke  instantly  formed 
the  bold  resolution  of  now  himself  becoming  the  assailant 
and  leading  his  successful  though  enfeebled  army  forward 
while  the  disheartening  effect  of  the  repulse  of  the  Imperial 
Guard  on  the  rest  of  the  French  army  was  still  strong,  and 
before  Napoleon  and  Ney  could  rally  the  beaten  veterans 
themselves  for  another  and  a  fiercer  charge.  As  the  close 
approach  of  the  Prussians  now  completely  protected  the 
duke's  left,  he  had  drawn  some  reserves  of  horse  from  that 
quarter ;  and  he  had  a  brigade  of  Hussars  under  Vivian 
fresh  and  ready  at  hand.  Without  a  moment's  hesitation  he 
launched  these  against  the  cavalry  near  La  Belle  Alliance. 
The  charge  was  as  successful  as  it  was  daring;  and,  as 
there  was  now  no  hostile  cavalry  to  check  the  British  infan- 
try in  a  forward  movement,  the  duke  gave  the  long-wished- 
for  command  for  a  general  advance  of  the  army  along  the 
whole  line  upon  the  foe.  It  was  now  past  eight  o'clock,  and 
for  nearly  nine  deadly  hours  had  the  British  and  German 
regiments  stood  unflinching  under  the  fire  of  artillery,  the 
charge  of  cavalry,  and  every  variety  of  assault  which  the 
compact  columns  or  the  scattered  tirailleurs  of  the  enemy's 
infantry  could  inflict.  As  they  joyously  sprang  forward 
against  the  discomfited  masses  of  the  French,  the  setting  sun 
broke  through  the  clouds  which  had  obscured  the  sky  during 
the  greater  part  of  the  day,  and  glittered  on  the  bayonets 
of  the  Allies  while  they  poured  down  into  the  valley  and 
towards  the  heights  that  were  held  by  the  foe.  The  duke 
himself  was  among  the  foremost  in  the  advance,  and  person- 
ally directed  the  movements  against  each  body  of  the  French 
that  essayed  resistance.  He  rode  in  front  of  Adams's  bri- 
gade, cheering  it  forward,  and  even  galloped  among  the  most 
advanced  of  the  British  skirmishers,  speaking  joyously  to  the 
men  and  receiving  their  hearty  shouts  of  congratulation. 
The  bullets  of   both  friends  and   foes  were  whistling   fast 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  41 1 

around  him ;  and  one  of  the  few  survivors  of  his  staff  remon- 
strated with  him  for  thus  exposing   a   life  of   such  value. 
"Never  mind,"  was  the  duke's  answer  —  "never  mind,  let 
them  fire  away ;  the  battle's  won,  and  my  life  is  of  no  conse- 
quence now."     And,  indeed,  almost  the  whole  of  the  French 
host  were  now  in  irreparable  confusion.     The  Prussian  army 
was  coming  more  and  more  rapidly  forward  on  their  right ; 
and  the  Young  Guard,  which  had  held  Planchenoit  so  bravely, 
was  at  last  compelled  to  give  way.     Some  regiments  of  the 
Old  Guard  in  vain  endeavored  to  form  in  squares  and  stem 
the  current.     They  were  swept  away  and  wrecked   among 
the  waves  of  the  flyers.     Napoleon  had  placed  himself  in 
one  of   these  squares  :    Marshal  Soult,   Generals   Bertrand, 
Drouot,  Corbineau,   De  Flahaut,  and  Gourgaud  were  with 
him.     The  emperor  spoke  of  dying  on  the  field,  but  Soult 
seized  his  bridle  and  turned  his  charger  round,  exclaiming, 
"  Sire,  are  not  the  enemy  already  lucky  enough?  "    With  the 
greatest  difficulty,  and  only  by  the  utmost  exertion  of  the 
devoted  officers  round  him,  Napoleon  cleared  the  throng  of 
fugitives  and  escaped  from  the  scene  of  the  battle  and  the 
war,  which  he  and  France  had  lost  past  all  recovery.     Mean- 
while the  Duke  of  Wellington  still  rode  forward  with  the  van 
of  his  victorious  troops,  until  he  reined  up  on  the  elevated 
ground  near  Rossomme.      The  daylight  was  now  entirely 
gone ;  but  the  young  moon  had  risen,  and  the  light  which 
it  cast,  aided  by  the  glare  from  the  burning  houses  and  other 
buildings  in  the  line  of  the  flying  French  and  pursuing  Prus- 
sians, enabled  the  duke  to  assure  himself  that  his  victory  was 
complete.      He  then   rode  back   along   the   Charleroi   road 
towards  Waterloo ;  and  near  La  Belle  Alliance  he  met  Mar- 
shal   Bliicher.      Warm  were  the  congratulations   that  were 
exchanged  between  the  allied  chiefs.     It  was  arranged  that 
the  Prussians   should  follow  up  the    pursuit  and   give   the 
French  no  chance  of  rallying.    Accordingly  the  British  army, 
exhausted  by  its  toils  and  sufferings  during  that  dreadful 
day,  did  not  advance  beyond  the  heights  which  the  enemy 
had  occupied.     But  the  Prussians  drove  the  fugitives  before 
them  in  merciless  chase  throughout  the  night.     Cannon,  bag- 
gage, and  all  the  materiel  of  the  army  were  abandoned  by 
the  French ;  and  many  thousands  of  the  infantry  threw  away 


412  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1815 

their  arms  to  facilitate  their  escape.  The  ground  was  strewn 
for  miles  with  the  wrecks  of  their  host.  There  was  no  rear- 
guard ;  nor  was  even  the  semblance  of  order  attempted.  An 
attempt  at  resistance  was  made  at  the  bridge  and  village  of 
Genappe,  the  first  narrow  pass  through  which  the  bulk  of 
the  French  retired.  The  situation  was  favorable ;  and  a  few 
resolute  battalions,  if  ably  commanded,  might  have  held  their 
pursuers  at  bay  there  for  some  considerable  time.  But  despair 
and  panic  were  now  universal  in  the  beaten  army.  At  the 
first  sound  of  the  Prussian  drums  and  bugles,  Genappe  was 
abandoned  and  nothing  thought  of  but  headlong  flight.  The 
Prussians,  under  General  Gneisenau,  still  followed  and  still 
slew ;  nor  even  when  the  Prussian  infantry  stopped  in  sheer 
exhaustion,  was  the  pursuit  given  up.  Gneisenau  still  pushed 
on  with  the  cavalry ;  and  by  an  ingenious  stratagem  made 
the  French  believe  that  his  infantry  were  still  close  on  them, 
and  scared  them  from  every  spot  where  they  attempted  to 
pause  and  rest.  He  mounted  one  of  his  drummers  on  a  horse 
which  had  been  taken  from  the  captured  carriage  of  Napo- 
leon, and  made  him  ride  along  with  the  pursuing  cavalry  and 
beat  the  drum  whenever  they  came  on  any  large  number  of 
the  French.  The  French  thus  fled,  and  the  Prussians  pur- 
sued, through  Quatre  Bras  and  even  over  the  heights  of 
Frasne ;  and  when  at  length  Gneisenau  drew  bridle,  and 
halted  a  little  beyond  Frasne  with  the  scanty  remnant  of 
keen  hunters  who  had  kept  up  the  chase  with  him  to  the 
last,  the  French  were  scattered  through  Gosselies,  Mar- 
chiennes,  and  Charleroi,  and  were  striving  to  regain  the  left 
bank  of  the  river  Sambre,  which  they  had  crossed  in  such 
pomp  and  pride  not  a  hundred  hours  before. 

Part  of  the  French  left  wing  endeavored  to  escape  from 
the  field  without  blending  with  the  main  body  of  the  fugitives 
who  thronged  the  Genappe  causeway.  A  French  officer  who 
was  among  those  who  thus  retreated  across  the  country  west- 
ward of  the  highroad  has  vividly  described  what  he  wit- 
nessed and  what  he  suffered.  Colonel  Lemonnier-Delafosse 
served  in  the  campaign  of  181 5  in  General  Foy's  staff,  and 
was  consequently  in  that  part  of  the  French  army  at  Water- 
loo which  acted  against  Hougoumont  and  the  British  right 
wing.     When  the  column  of  the  Imperial  Guard  made  their 


AFTER  WATERLOO. 

Photogravure  from  a  painting  by  A.  C.  Gow. 


-  *■:.    '   * 


1815]  BATTLE    OF   WATERLOO  413 

great  charge  at  the  end  of  the  day,  the  troops  of  Foy's 
division  advanced  in  support  of  them,  and  Colonel  Lemon- 
nier-Delafosse  describes  the  confident  hopes  of  victory  and 
promotion  with  which  he  marched  to  that  attack,  and  the 
fearful  carnage  and  confusion  of  the  assailants,  amid  which 
he  was  helplessly  hurried  back  by  his  flying  comrades.  He 
then  narrates  the  closing  scene  :  — 

"  Near  one  of  the  hedges  of  Hougoumont  farm,  without 
even  a  drummer  to  beat  the  rappel,  we  succeeded  in  rallying 
under  the  enemy's  fire  300  men :  they  were  nearly  all  that 
remained  of  our  splendid  division.  Thither  came  together  a 
band  of  generals.  There  was  Reille,  whose  horse  had  been 
shot  under  him;  there  were  d'Erlon,  Bachelu,  Foy,  Jamin, 
and  others.  All  were  gloomy  and  sorrowful,  like  vanquished 
men.  Their  words  were,  — '  Here  is  all  that  is  left  of  my 
corps,  of  my  division,  of  my  brigade :  I,  myself.'  We  had 
seen  the  fall  of  Duhesme,  of  Pelet-de-Morvan,  of  Michel  — 
generals  who  had  found  a  glorious  death.  My  general,  Foy, 
had  his  shoulder  pierced  through  by  a  musket-ball ;  and  out 
of  his  whole  staff  two  officers  only  were  left  to  him,  Cahour 
Duhay  and  I.  Fate  had  spared  me  in  the  midst  of  so  many 
dangers,  though  the  first  charger  I  rode  had  been  shot  and 
had  fallen  on  me. 

"  The  enemy's  horse  were  coming  down  on  us,  and  our  lit- 
tle group  was  obliged  to  retreat.  What  had  happened  to  our 
division  of  the  left  wing  had  taken  place  all  along  the  line. 
The  movement  of  the  hostile  cavalry,  which  inundated  the 
whole  plain,  had  demoralized  our  soldiers,  who,  seeing  all 
regular  retreat  of  the  army  cut  off,  strove  each  man  to  effect 
one  for  himself.  At  each  instant  the  road  became  more 
encumbered.  Infantry,  cavalry,  and  artillery  were  pressing 
along  pell-mell :  jammed  together  like  a  solid  mass.  Figure 
to  yourself  40,000  men  struggling  and  thrusting  themselves 
along  a  single  causeway.  We  could  not  take  that  way  without 
destruction ;  so  the  generals  who  had  collected  together  near 
the  Hougoumont  hedge  dispersed  across  the  fields.  General 
Foy  alone  remained  with  the  300  men  whom  he  had  gleaned 
from  the  field  of  battle,  and  marched  at  their  head.  Our 
anxiety  was  to  withdraw  from  the  scene  of  action  without 
being  confounded  with  the  fugitives.     Our  general  wished  to 


4H  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1815 

retreat  like  a  true  soldier.  Seeing  three  lights  in  the  southern 
horizon,  like  beacons,  General  Foy  asked  me  what  I  thought 
of  the  position  of  each.  I  answered,  '  The  first  to  the  left  is 
Genappe ;  the  second  is  at  Bois  de  Bossu,  near  the  farm  of 
Quatre  Bras;  the  third  is  at  Gosselies.'  'Let  us  march  on 
the  second  one,  then,'  replied  Foy,  '  and  let  no  obstacle  stop 
us  —  take  the  head  of  the  column,  and  do  not  lose  sight  of  the 
guiding  light.'     Such  was  his  order,  and  I  strove  to  obey. 

"  After  all  the  agitation  and  the  incessant  din  of  a  long  day 
of  battle,  how  imposing  was  the  stillness  of  that  night !  We 
proceeded  on  our  sad  and  lonely  march.  We  were  a  prey  to 
the  most  cruel  reflections ;  we  were  humiliated,  we  were  hope- 
less; but  not  a  word  of  complaint  was  heard.  We  walked 
silently  as  a  troop  of  mourners  and  it  might  have  been  said 
that  we  were  attending  the  funeral  of  our  country's  glory. 
Suddenly  the  stillness  was  broken  by  a  challenge,  — '  Qui 
vive  ?  '  '  France  ! '  '  Kellermann  ! '  '  Foy ! '  'Is  it  you,  gen- 
eral? come  nearer  to  us.'  At  that  moment  we  were  passing 
over  a  little  hillock,  at  the  foot  of  which  was  a  hut,  in  which 
Kellermann  and  some  of  his  officers  had  halted.  They  came 
out  to  join  us.  Foy  said  to  me,  '  Kellermann  knows  the  coun- 
try :  he  has  been  along  here  before  with  his  cavalry  ;  we  had 
better  follow  him.'  But  we  found  that  the  direction  which 
Kellermann  chose  was  towards  the  first  light,  towards  Genappe. 
That  led  to  the  causeway  which  our  general  rightly  wished 
to  avoid.  I  went  to  the  left  to  reconnoiter,  and  was  soon  con- 
vinced that  such  was  the  case.  It  was  then  that  I  was  able 
to  form  a  full  idea  of  the  disorder  of  a  routed  army.  What  a 
hideous  spectacle!  The  mountain  torrent,  that  uproots  and 
whirls  along  with  it  every  momentary  obstacle,  is  a  feeble 
image  of  that  heap  of  men,  of  horses,  of  equipages,  rushing  one 
upon  another ;  gathering  before  the  least  obstacle  which  dams 
up  their  way  for  a  few  seconds,  only  to  form  a  mass  which 
overthrows  everything  in  the  path  which  it  forces  for  itself. 
Wo  to  him  whose  footing  failed  him  in  that  deluge!  He 
was  crushed,  trampled  to  death !  I  returned  and  told  my 
general  what  I  had  seen,  and  he  instantly  abandoned  Keller- 
mann and  resumed  his  original  line  of  march. 

"  Keeping  straight  across  the  country  over  fields  and  the 
rough  thickets,  we  at  last  arrived  at  the  Bois  de  Bossu,  where 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  415 

we  halted.  My  general  said  to  me  : '  Go  to  the  farm  of  Quatre 
Bras  and  announce  that  we  are  here.  The  emperor  or  Soult 
must  be  there.  Ask  for  orders,  and  recollect  that  I  am  waiting 
here  for  you.  The  lives  of  these  men  depend  on  your  exact- 
ness.' To  reach  the  farm  I  was  obliged  to  cross  the  high- 
road :  I  was  on  horseback,  but  nevertheless  was  borne  away  by 
the  crowd  that  fled  along  the  road,  and  it  was  long  ere  I  could 
extricate  myself  and  reach  the  farmhouse.  General  Lobau 
was  there  with  his  staff,  resting  in  fancied  security.  They 
thought  that  their  troops  had  halted  there ;  but,  though  a  halt 
had  been  attempted,  the  men  had  soon  fled  forward,  like  their 
comrades  of  the  rest  of  the  army.  The  shots  of  the  approach- 
ing Prussians  were  now  heard  ;  and  I  believe  that  General 
Lobau  was  taken  prisoner  in  that  farmhouse.  I  left  him  to 
rejoin  my  general,  which  I  did  with  difficulty.  I  found  him 
alone.  His  men,  as  they  came  near  the  current  of  flight,  were 
infected  with  the  general  panic  and  fled  also. 

"  What  was  to  be  done  ?  Follow  that  crowd  of  runaways  ? 
General  Foy  would  not  hear  of  it.  There  were  five  of  us  still 
with  him,  all  officers.  He  had  been  wounded  at  about  five  in 
the  afternoon,  and  the  wound  had  not  been  dressed.  He  suf- 
fered severely ;  but  his  moral  courage  was  unbroken.  '  Let 
us  keep,'  he  said,  '  a  line  parallel  to  the  highroad,  and  work 
our  way  hence  as  we  best  can.'  A  foot  track  was  before  us, 
and  we  followed  it. 

"The  moon  shone  out  brightly,  and  revealed  the  full 
wretchedness  of  the  tableau  which  met  our  eyes.  A  brigadier 
and  four  cavalry  soldiers,  whom  we  met  with,  formed  our 
escort.  We  marched  on  ;  and,  as  the  noise  grew  more  distant, 
I  thought  that  we  were  losing  the  parallel  of  the  highway. 
Finding  that  we  had  the  moon  more  and  more  on  the  left,  I 
felt  sure  of  this,  and  mentioned  it  to  the  general.  Absorbed 
in  thought,  he  made  me  no  reply.  We  came  in  front  of  a 
windmill,  and  endeavored  to  procure  some  information ;  but 
we  could  not  gain  an  entrance  or  make  any  one  answer,  and 
we  continued  our  nocturnal  march.  At  last  we  entered  a  vil- 
lage, but  found  every  door  closed  against  us,  and  were  obliged 
to  use  threats  in  order  to  gain  admission  into  a  single  house. 
The  poor  woman  to  whom  it  belonged,  more  dead  than  alive, 
received  us  as  if  we  had  been  enemies.     Before  asking  where 


416  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1815 

we  were,  '  Food,  give  us  some  food ! '  was  our  cry.  Bread 
and  butter  and  beer  were  brought,  and  soon  disappeared 
before  men  who  had  fasted  for  twenty-four  hours.  A  little 
revived,  we  asked,  '  Where  are  we  ?  what  is  the  name  of  this 
village  ? '  —  '  Vieville.' 

"  On  looking  at  the  map,  I  saw  that  in  coming  to  that  vil- 
lage we  had  leaned  too  much  to  the  right,  and  that  we  were 
in  the  direction  of  Mons.  In  order  to  reach  the  Sambre  at 
the  bridge  of  Marchiennes,  we  had  four  leagues  to  traverse ; 
and  there  was  scarcely  time  to  march  the  distance  before  day- 
break. I  made  a  villager  act  as  our  guide,  and  bound  him  by 
his  arm  to  my  stirrup.  He  led  us  through  Roux  to  Mar- 
chiennes. The  poor  fellow  ran  alongside  of  my  horse  the 
whole  way.  It  was  cruel  but  necessary  to  compel  him,  for 
we  had  not  an  instant  to  spare.  At  six  in  the  morning  we 
entered  Marchiennes. 

"  Marshal  Ney  was  there.  Our  general  went  to  see  him, 
and  to  ask  what  orders  he  had  to  give.  Ney  was  asleep  ;  and, 
rather  than  rob  him  of  the  first  repose  he  had  had  for  four 
days,  our  general  returned  to  us  without  seeing  him.  And, 
indeed,  what  orders  could  Marshal  Ney  have  given  ?  The 
whole  army  was  crossing  the  Sambre,  each  man  where  and 
how  he  chose ;  some  at  Charleroi,  some  at  Marchiennes.  We 
were  about  to  do  the  same  thing.  When  once  beyond  the 
Sambre,  we  might  safely  halt;  and  both  men  and  horses  were 
in  extreme  need  of  rest.  We  passed  through  Thuin ;  and  find- 
ing a  little  copse  near  the  road,  we  gladly  sought  its  shelter. 
While  our  horses  grazed,  we  lay  down  and  slept.  How  sweet 
was  that  sleep  after  the  fatigues  of  the  long  day  of  battle,  and 
after  the  night  of  retreat  more  painful  still !  We  rested  in 
the  little  copse  till  noon,  and  sat  there  watching  the  wrecks 
of  our  army  defile  along  the  road  before  us.  It  was  a  soul- 
harrowing  sight !  Yet  the  different  arms  of  the  service  had 
resumed  a  certain  degree  of  order  amid  their  disorder ;  and 
our  general,  feeling  his  strength  revive,  resolved  to  follow  a 
strong  column  of  cavalry  which  was  taking  the  direction  of 
Beaumont,  about  four  leagues  off.  We  drew  near  Beaumont, 
when  suddenly  a  regiment  of  horse  was  seen  debouching  from 
a  wood  on  our  left.  The  column  that  we  followed  shouted  out, 
1  The  Prussians !  the  Prussians ! '  and  galloped  off  in  utter  dis- 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  417 

order.  The  troops  that  thus  alarmed  them  were  not  a  tenth 
part  of  their  number,  and  were  in  reality  our  own  8th  Hussars, 
who  wore  green  uniforms.  But  the  panic  had  been  brought 
even  thus  far  from  the  battle-field,  and  the  disorganized  col' 
umn  galloped  into  Beaumont,  which  was  already  crowded 
with  our  infantry.  We  were  obliged  to  follow  that  debacle. 
On  entering  Beaumont  we  chose  a  house  of  superior  appear- 
ance, and  demanded  of  the  mistress  of  it  refreshments  for  the 
general.  '  Alas! '  said  the  lady,  'this  is  the  tenth  general  who 
has  been  to  this  house  since  this  morning.  I  have  nothing 
left.  Search,  if  you  please,  and  see.'  Though  unable  to  find 
food  for  the  general,  I  persuaded  him  to  take  his  coat  off  and 
let  me  examine  his  wound.  The  bullet  had  gone  through  the 
twists  of  the  left  epaulette,  and,  penetrating  the  skin,  had  run 
round  the  shoulder  without  injuring  the  bone.  The  lady  of 
the  house  made  some  lint  for  me;  and  without  any  great  degree 
of  surgical  skill  I  succeeded  in  dressing  the  wound. 

"  Being  still  anxious  to  procure  some  food  for  the  general 
and  ourselves,  if  it  were  but  a  loaf  of  ammunition  bread,  I 
left  the  house  and  rode  out  into  the  town.  I  saw  pillage 
going  on  in  every  direction :  open  caissons,  stripped  and  half 
broken,  blocked  up  the  streets.  The  pavement  was  covered 
with  plundered  and  torn  baggage.  Pillagers  and  runaways, 
such  were  all  the  comrades  I  met  with.  Disgusted  at  them, 
I  strove,  sword  in  hand,  to  stop  one  of  the  plunderers ;  but, 
more  active  than  I,  he  gave  me  a  bayonet  stab  in  my  left  arm, 
in  which  I  fortunately  caught  his  thrust,  which  had  been  aimed 
full  at  my  body.  He  disappeared  among  the  crowd,  through 
which  I  could  not  force  my  horse.  My  spirit  of  discipline 
had  made  me  forget  that  in  such  circumstances  the  soldier  is 
a  mere  wild  beast.  But  to  be  wounded  by  a  fellow  country- 
man after  having  passed  unharmed  through  all  the  perils  of 
Quatre  Bras  and  Waterloo!  —  this  did  seem  hard,  indeed.  I 
was  trying  to  return  to  General  Foy,  when  another  horde  of 
flyers  burst  into  Beaumont,  swept  me  into  the  current  of  their 
flight,  and  hurried  me  out  of  the  town  with  them.  Until  I 
received  my  wound  I  had  preserved  my  moral  courage  in 
full  force ;  but  now,  worn  out  with  fatigue,  covered  with 
blood,  and  suffering  severe  pain  from  the  wound,  I  own  that 
I  gave  way  to  the   general    demoralization    and  let  myself 


418  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1815 

be  inertly  borne  along  with  the  rushing  mass.  At  last  I 
reached  Landrecies,  though  I  know  not  how  or  when.  But  I 
found  there  our  Colonel  Hurday,  who  had  been  left  behind 
there  in  consequence  of  an  accidental  injury  from  a  carriage. 
He  took  me  with  him  to  Paris,  where  I  retired  amid  my 
family  and  got  cured  of  my  wound,  knowing  nothing  of  the 
rest  of  political  and  military  events  that  were  taking  place." 

No  returns  ever  were  made  of  the  amount  of  the  French 
loss  in  the  battle  of  Waterloo  ;  but  it  must  have  been  immense, 
and  may  be  partially  judged  of  by  the  amount  of  killed  and 
wounded  in  the  armies  of  the  conquerors.  On  this  subject 
both  the  Prussian  and  British  official  evidence  is  unquestion- 
ably full  and  authentic.     The  figures  are  terribly  emphatic. 

Of  the  army  that  fought  under  the  Duke  of  Wellington 
nearly  1 5 ,000  men  were  killed  and  wounded  on  this  single  day  of 
battle.  Seven  thousand  Prussians  also  fell  at  Waterloo.  At 
such  a  fearful  price  was  the  deliverance  of  Europe  purchased. 

By  none  was  the  severity  of  that  loss  more  keenly  felt  than 
by  our  great  deliverer  himself.  As  may  be  seen  in  Major 
Macready's  narrative,  the  duke,  while  the  battle  was  raging, 
betrayed  no  sign  of  emotion  at  the  most  ghastly  casualties ; 
but,  when  all  was  over,  the  sight  of  the  carnage  with  which 
the  field  was  covered,  and,  still  more,  the  sickening  spectacle 
of  the  agonies  of  the  wounded  men  who  lay  moaning  in  their 
misery  by  thousands  and  tens  of  thousands,  weighed  heavily 
on  the  spirit  of  the  victor,  as  he  rode  back  across  the  scene  of 
strife.  On  reaching  his  headquarters  in  the  village  of  Water- 
loo, the  duke  inquired  anxiously  after  the  numerous  friends 
who  had  been  round  him  in  the  morning,  and  to  whom  he 
was  warmly  attached.  Many,  he  was  told,  were  dead  ;  others 
were  lying  alive,  but  mangled  and  suffering,  in  the  houses 
round  him.  It  is  in  our  hero's  own  words  alone  that  his 
feelings  can  be  adequately  told.  In  a  letter  written  by  him 
almost  immediately  after  his  return  from  the  field,  he  thus 
expressed  himself :  "  My  heart  is  broken  by  the  terrible  loss 
I  have  sustained  in  my  old  friends  and  companions  and  my 
poor  soldiers.  Believe  me,  nothing  except  a  battle  lost  can 
be  half  so  melancholy  as  a  battle  won.  The  bravery  of  my 
troops  has  hitherto  saved  me  from  the  greater  evil ;  but  to 
win  such  a  battle  as  this  of  Waterloo,  at  the  expense  of  so 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  419 

many  gallant  friends,  could  only  be  termed  a  heavy  misfortune 
but  for  the  result  to  the  public." 

It  is  not  often  that  a  successful  general  in  modern  warfare 
is  called  on,  like  the  victorious  commander  of  the  ancient 
Greek  armies,  to  award  a  prize  of  superior  valor  to  one  of  his 
soldiers.  Such  was  to  some  extent  the  case  with  respect  to  the 
battle  of  Waterloo.  In  the  August  of  1 8 1 8,  an  English  clergy- 
man offered  to  confer  a  small  annuity  on  some  Waterloo  soldier, 
to  be  named  by  the  duke.  The  duke  requested  Sir  John 
Byng  to  choose  a  man  from  the  second  brigade  of  Guards, 
which  had  so  highly  distinguished  itself  in  the  defense  of 
Hougoumont.  There  were  many  gallant  candidates,  but  the 
election  fell  on  Sergeant  James  Graham,  of  the  light  company 
of  the  Coldstreams.  This  brave  man  had  signalized  himself 
throughout  the  day  in  the  defense  of  that  important  post, 
and  especially  in  the  critical  struggle  that  took  place  at  the 
period  when  the  French,  who  had  gained  the  wood,  the 
orchard,  and  detached  garden,  succeeded  in  bursting  open  a 
gate  of  the  courtyard  of  the  chateau  itself,  and  rushed  in  in 
large  masses,  confident  of  carrying  all  before  them.  A  hand- 
to-hand  fight,  of  the  most  desperate  character,  was  kept  up 
between  them  and  the  Guards  for  a  few  minutes ;  but  at  last 
the  British  bayonets  prevailed.  Nearly  all  the  Frenchmen 
who  had  forced  their  way  in  were  killed  on  the  spot ;  and,  as 
the  few  survivors  ran  back,  five  of  the  Guards,  Colonel  Mac- 
donnell,  Captain  Wyndham,  Ensign  Gooch,  Ensign  Hervey, 
and  Sergeant  Graham,  by  sheer  strength,  closed  the  gate 
again,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  the  French  from  without,  and 
effectually  barricaded  it  against  further  assaults.  Over  and 
through  the  loopholed  wall  of  the  courtyard  the  English 
garrison  now  kept  up  a  deadly  fire  of  musketry,  which  was 
fiercely  answered  by  the  French,  who  swarmed  round  the 
curtilage  like  ravening  wolves.  Shells,  too,  from  their  bat- 
teries were  falling  fast  into  the  besieged  place,  one  of  which 
set  part  of  the  mansion  and  some  of  the  outbuildings  on  fire. 
Graham,  who  was  at  this  time  standing  near  Colonel  Mac- 
donnell  at  the  wall,  and  who  had  shown  the  most  perfect 
steadiness  and  courage,  now  asked  permission  of  his  com- 
manding officer  to  retire  for  a  moment.  Macdonnell  replied, 
"  By  all  means,  Graham ;  but  I  wonder  you  should  ask  leave 


420  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1815 

now."  Graham  answered,  "  I  would  not,  sir,  only  my  brother 
is  wounded,  and  he  is  in  that  outbuilding  there,  which  has  just 
caught  fire."  Laying  down  his  musket,  Graham  ran  to  the 
blazing  spot,  lifted  up  his  brother,  and  laid  him  in  a  ditch. 
Then  he  was  back  at  his  post,  and  was  plying  his  musket 
against  the  French  again  before  his  absence  was  noticed, 
except  by  his  colonel. 

Many  anecdotes  of  individual  prowess  have  been  preserved ; 
but  of  all  the  brave  men  who  were  in  the  British  army  on  that 
eventful  day,  none  deserves  more  honor  for  courage  and  indom- 
itable resolution  than  Sir  Thomas  Picton,  who,  as  has  been 
mentioned,  fell  in  repulsing  the  great  attack  of  the  French 
upon  the  British  left  center.  It  was  not  until  the  dead  body 
was  examined  after  the  battle  that  the  full  heroism  of  Picton 
was  discerned.  He  had  been  wounded  on  the  16th,  at  Quatre 
Bras,  by  a  musket-ball,  which  had  broken  two  of  his  ribs  and 
caused  also  severe  internal  injuries  ;  but  he  had  concealed  the 
circumstance,  evidently  in  expectation  that  another  and  greater 
battle  would  be  fought  in  a  short  time,  and  desirous  to  avoid 
being  solicited  to  absent  himself  from  the  field.  His  body  was 
blackened  and  swollen  by  the  wound,  which  must  have  caused 
severe  and  incessant  pain ;  and  it  was  marvelous  how  his 
spirit  had  borne  him  up,  and  enabled  him  to  take  part  in  the 
fatigues  and  duties  of  the  field.  The  bullet  vvhich,  on  the 
1 8th,  killed  the  renowned  leader  of  "  the  fighting  division  "  of 
the  Peninsula  entered  the  head  near  the  left  temple,  and  passed 
through  the  brain ;  so  that  Picton's  death  must  have  been 
instantaneous. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  narratives  of  personal  adven- 
ture at  Waterloo  is  that  of  Colonel  Frederick  Ponsonby,  of 
the  1 2th  Light  Dragoons,  who  was  severely  wounded  when 
Vandeleur's  brigade,  to  which  he  belonged,  attacked  the 
French  lancers,  in  order  to  bring  off  the  Union  Brigade, 
which  was  retiring  from  its  memorable  charge.  The  12th, 
like  those  whom  they  rescued,  advanced  much  farther  against 
the  French  position  than  prudence  warranted.  Ponsonby, 
with  many  others,  was  speared  by  a  reserve  of  Polish  lancers, 
and  left  for  dead  on  the  field.  It  is  well  to  refer  to  the  de- 
scription of  what  he  suffered  (as  he  afterwards  gave  it,  when 
almost  miraculously  recovered  from  his  numerous  wounds), 


1815]  BATTLE   OF  WATERLOO  42 1 

because  his  fate,  or  worse,  was  the  fate  of  thousands  more ; 
and  because  the  narrative  of  the  pangs  of  an  individual,  with 
whom  we  can  indentify  ourselves,  always  comes  more  home 
to  us  than  a  general  description  of  the  miseries  of  whole 
masses.  His  tale  may  make  us  remember  what  are  the  hor- 
rors of  war  as  well  as  its  glories.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that 
the  operations  which  he  refers  to  took  place  about  three 
o'clock  in  the  day,  and  that  the  fighting  went  on  for  at  least 
five  hours  more.  After  describing  how  he  and  his  men  charged 
through  the  French  whom  they  first  encountered,  and  went 
against  other  enemies,  he  states  :  — 

"  We  had  no  sooner  passed  them  than  we  were  ourselves 
attacked,  before  we  could  form,  by  about  300  Polish  lancers, 
who  had  hastened  to  their  relief,  the  French  artillery  pour- 
ing in  among  us  a  heavy  fire  of  grape,  though  for  one  of  our 
men  they  killed  three  of  their  own. 

"  In  the  melde  I  was  almost  instantly  disabled  in  both  arms, 
losing  first  my  sword,  and  then  my  reins ;  and  followed  by  a  few 
men,  who  were  presently  cut  down,  no  quarter  being  allowed, 
asked,  or  given,  I  was  carried  along  by  my  horse,  till,  receiving  a 
blow  from  a  saber,  I  fell  senseless  on  my  face  to  the  ground. 

"  Recovering,  I  raised  myself  a  little  to  look  round,  being  at 
that  time,  I  believe,  in  a  condition  to  get  up  and  run  away ; 
when  a  lancer,  passing  by,  cried  out,  'Tu  n'est  pas  mort, 
coquin ! '  and  struck  his  lance  through  my  back.  My  head 
dropped,  the  blood  gushed  into  my  mouth,  a  difficulty  of 
breathing  came  on,  and  I  thought  all  was  over. 

"  Not  long  afterwards  (it  was  impossible  to  measure  time, 
but  I  must  have  fallen  in  less  than  ten  minutes  after  the  on- 
set) a  tirailleur  stopped  to  plunder  me,  threatening  my  life. 
I  directed  him  to  a  small  side  pocket,  in  which  he  found  three 
dollars,  all  I  had ;  but  he  continued  to  threaten,  and  I  said 
he  might  search  me :  this  he  did  immediately,  unloosing  my 
stock  and  tearing  open  my  waistcoat,  and  leaving  me  in  a  very 
uneasy  posture. 

"  But  he  was  no  sooner  gone  than  an  officer  bringing  up 
some  troops,  to  which  probably  the  tirailleur  belonged,  and 
happening  to  halt  where  I  lay,  stooped  down  and  addressed 
me,  saying  he  feared  I  was  badly  wounded  ;  I  said  that  I  was, 
and  expressed  a  wish  to  be  removed  to  the  rear.     He  said  it 


422  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1815 

was  against  their  orders  to  remove  even  their  own  men ;  but 
that  if  they  gained  the  day  (and  he  understood  that  the  Duke 
of  Wellington  was  killed,  and  that  some  of  our  battalions  had 
surrendered),  every  attention  in  his  power  would  be  shown 
me.  I  complained  of  thirst,  and  he  held  his  brandy-bottle  to 
my  lips,  directing  one  of  the  soldiers  to  lay  me  straight  on  my 
side  and  place  a  knapsack  under  my  head.  He  then  passed 
on  into  action  —  soon,  perhaps,  to  want,  though  not  receive, 
the  same  assistance ;  and  I  shall  never  know  to  whose  gener- 
osity I  was  indebted,  as  I  believe,  for  my  life.  Of  what  rank 
he  was,  I  cannot  say :  he  wore  a  great-coat.  By  and  by 
another  tirailleur  came  up,  a  fine  young  man,  full  of  ardor. 
He  knelt  down  and  fired  over  me,  loading  and  firing  many 
times,  and  conversing  with  me  all  the  while."  The  French- 
man, with  strange  coolness,  informed  Ponsonby  of  how  he 
was  shooting,  and  what  he  thought  of  the  progress  of  the 
battle.  "  At  last  he  ran  off,  exclaiming,  '  You  will  probably 
not  be  sorry  to  hear  that  we  are  going  to  retreat.  Good  day, 
my  friend.'  It  was  dusk,"  Ponsonby  adds,  "when  two  squad- 
rons of  Prussian  cavalry,  each  of  them  two  deep,  came  across 
the  valley  and  passed  over  me  in  full  trot,  lifting  me  from  the 
ground  and  tumbling  me  about  cruelly.  The  clatter  of  their 
approach,  and  the  apprehensions  they  excited,  may  be  imag- 
ined ;  a  gun  taking  that  direction  must  have  destroyed  me. 

"  The  battle  was  now  at  an  end,  or  removed  to  a  distance. 
The  shouts,  the  imprecations,  the  outcries  of  'Vive  l'Empe- 
reur  !  '  the  discharge  of  musketry  and  cannon,  were  over ;  and 
the  groans  of  the  wounded  all  around  me  became  every  moment 
more  and  more  audible.     I  thought  the  night  would  never  end. 

"  Much  about  this  time  I  found  a  soldier  of  the  Royals  lying 
across  my  legs  —  he  had  probably  crawled  thither  in  his  agony; 
and  his  weight,  his  convulsive  motions,  and  the  air  issuing 
through  a  wound  in  his  side,  distressed  me  greatly ;  the  last 
circumstance  most  of  all,  as  I  had  a  wound  of  the  same  na- 
ture myself. 

"  It  was  not  a  dark  night,  and  the  Prussians  were  wander- 
ing about  to  plunder  ;  the  scene  in  '  Ferdinand  Count  Fathom  ' 
came  into  my  mind,  though  no  women  appeared.  Several 
stragglers  looked  at  me,  as  they  passed  by,  one  after  another, 
and  at  last  one  of  them  stopped  to  examine  me.     I  told  him 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  423 

as  well  as  I  could,  for  I  spoke  German  very  imperfectly,  that 
I  was  a  British  officer,  and  had  been  plundered  already;  he 
did  not  desist,  however,  and  pulled  me  about  roughly. 

"  An  hour  before  midnight  I  saw  a  man  in  an  English  uni- 
form walking  towards  me.  He  was,  I  suspect,  on  the  same 
errand,  and  he  came  and  looked  in  my  face.  I  spoke  instantly, 
telling  him  who  I  was,  and  assuring  him  of  a  reward  if  he 
would  remain  by  me.  He  said  he  belonged  to  the  40th,  and 
had  missed  his  regiment ;  he  released  me  from  the  dying  sol- 
dier, and,  being  unarmed,  took  up  a  sword  from  the  ground 
and  stood  over  me,  pacing  backward  and  forward. 

"  Day  broke  ;  and  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  some  Eng- 
lish were  seen  at  a  distance,  and  he  ran  to  them.  A  messen- 
ger being  sent  off  to  Hervey,  a  cart  came  for  me,  and  I  was 
placed  in  it,  and  carried  to  the  village  of  Waterloo,  a  mile  and 
a  half  off,  and  laid  in  the  bed  from  which,  as  I  understood 
afterwards,  Gordon  had  been  just  carried  out.  I  had  received 
seven  wounds ;  a  surgeon  slept  in  my  room,  and  I  was  saved 
by  excessive  bleeding." 

Major  Macready,  in  the  journal  already  cited,  justly  praises 
the  deep  devotion  to  their  emperor  which  marked  the  French 
at  Waterloo.  Never,  indeed,  had  the  national  bravery  of  the 
French  people  been  more  nobly  shown.  One  soldier  in  the 
French  ranks  was  seen,  when  his  arm  was  shattered  by  a 
cannon-ball,  to  wrench  it  off  with  the  other ;  and,  throwing  it 
up  in  the  air,  he  exclaimed  to  his  comrades,  "  Vive  l'Empereur 
jusqu'a  la  rhort !  "  Colonel  Lemonnier-Delafosse  mentions 
in  his  "  Memoires  "  that,  at  the  beginning  of  the  action,  a 
French  soldier  who  had  had  both  legs  carried  off  by  a  cannon- 
ball  was  borne  past  the  front  of  Foy's  division,  and  called  out 
to  them,  "  Ce  n'est  rien,  camarades !  Vive  l'Empereur ! 
Gloire  a  la  France ! "  The  same  officer,  at  the  end  of  the 
battle,  when  all  hope  was  lost,  tells  us  that  he  saw  a  French 
grenadier,  blackened  with  powder  and  with  his  clothes  torn 
and  stained,  leaning  on  his  musket  and  immovable  as  a  statue. 
The  colonel  called  to  him  to  join  his  comrades  and  retreat; 
but  the  grenadier  showed  him  his  musket  and  his  hands 
and  said,  "  These  hands  have  with  this  musket  used  to-day 
more  than  twenty  packets  of  cartridges :  it  was  more  than 
my  share.     I  supplied  myself  with  ammunition  from  the  dead. 


424  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1815 

Leave  me  to  die  here  on  the  field  of  battle.  It  is  not  courage 
that  fails  me,  but  strength."  Then,  as  Colonel  Delafosse  left 
him,  the  soldier  stretched  himself  on  the  ground  to  meet  his 
fate,  exclaiming,  "  Tout  est  perdu !  pauvre  France  !  "  The 
gallantry  of  the  French  officers  at  least  equaled  that  of  their 
men.  Ney,  in  particular,  set  the  example  of  the  most  daring 
courage.  Here,  as  in  every  French  army  in  which  he  ever 
served  or  commanded,  he  was  "  le  brave  des  braves."  Through- 
out the  day  he  was  in  the  front  of  the  battle,  and  was  one  of 
the  very  last  Frenchmen  who  quitted  the  field.  His  horse 
was  killed  under  him  in  the  last  attack  made  on  the  English 
position ;  but  he  was  seen  on  foot,  his  clothes  torn  with  bullets, 
his  face  smirched  with  powder,  striving,  sword  in  hand,  first 
to  urge  his  men  forward,  and  at  last  to  check  their  flight. 

There  was  another  brave  general  of  the  French  army, 
whose  valor  and  good  conduct  on  that  day  of  disaster  to  his 
nation  should  never  be  unnoticed  when  the  story  of  Waterloo 
is  recounted.  This  was  General  Pelet,  who,  about  seven  in 
the  evening,  led  the  first  battalion  of  the  2d  regiment  of  the 
Chasseurs  of  the  Guard  to  the  defense  of  Planchenoit,  and 
on  whom  Napoleon  personally  urged  the  deep  importance  of 
maintaining  possession  of  that  village.  Pelet  and  his  men  took 
their  post  in  the  central  part  of  the  village,  and  occupied  the 
church  and  churchyard  in  great  strength.  There  they  re- 
pelled every  assault  of  the  Prussians,  who  in  rapidly  increas- 
ing numbers  rushed  forward  with  infuriated  pertinacity. 
They  held  their  post  till  the  utter  rout  of  the  main  army  of 
their  comrades  was  apparent  and  the  victorious  Allies  were 
thronging  around  Planchenoit.  Then  Pelet  and  his  brave 
Chasseurs  quitted  the  churchyard  and  retired  with  steady 
march,  though  they  suffered  fearfully  from  the  moment  th^.y 
left  their  shelter,  and  Prussian  cavalry  as  well  as  infantry 
dashed  fiercely  after  them.  Pelet  kept  together  a  little  knot 
of  250  veterans,  and  had  the  eagle  covered  over  and  borne 
along  in  the  midst  of  them.  At  one  time  the  inequality  of 
the  ground  caused  his  ranks  to  open  a  little,  and  in  an  in- 
stant the  Prussian  horsemen  were  on  them  and  striving  to 
capture  the  eagle.  Captain  Siborne  relates  the  conduct  of 
Pelet  with  the  admiration  worthy  of  one  brave  soldier  for 
another : — 


1815]  BATTLE   OF  WATERLOO  425 

"  Pelet,  taking  advantage  of  a  spot  of  ground  which  afforded 
them  some  degree  of  cover  against  the  fire  of  grape  by  which 
they  were  constantly  assailed,  halted  the  standard-bearer,  and 
called  out,  '  A  moi,  Chasseurs !  Sauvons  l'aigle,  ou  mourons 
autour  d'elle ! '  The  Chasseurs  immediately  pressed  around 
him,  forming  what  is  usually  termed  the  rallying  square,  and, 
lowering  their  bayonets,  succeeded  in  repulsing  the  charge  of 
cavalry.  Some  guns  were  then  brought  to  bear  upon  them, 
and  subsequently  a  brisk  fire  of  musketry ;  but  notwithstand- 
ing the  awful  sacrifice  which  was  thus  offered  up  in  defense 
of  their  precious  charge,  they  succeeded  in  reaching  the  main 
line  of  retreat,  favored  by  the  universal  confusion,  as  also  by 
the  general  obscurity  which  now  prevailed,  and  thus  saved 
alike  the  eagle  and  the  honor  of  the  regiment." 

French  writers  do  injustice  to  their  own  army  and  general 
when  they  revive  malignant  calumnies  against  Wellington  and 
speak  of  his  having  blundered  into  victory.  No  blunderer  could 
have  successfully  encountered  such  troops  as  those  of  Napo- 
leon and  under  such  a  leader.  It  is  superfluous  to  cite  against 
these  cavils  the  testimony  which  other  Continental  critics  have 
borne  to  the  high  military  genius  of  our  illustrious  chief.  I 
refer  to  one  only,  which  is  of  peculiar  value  on  account  of  the 
quarter  whence  it  comes.  It  is  that  of  the  great  German 
writer  Niebuhr,  whose  accurate  acquaintance  with  every 
important  scene  of  modern  as  well  as  ancient  history  was 
unparalleled,  and  who  was  no  mere  pedant,  but  a  man  practi- 
cally versed  in  active  life,  and  had  been  personally  acquainted 
with  most  of  the  leading  men  in  the  great  events  of  the  early 
part  of  this  century.  Niebuhr,  in  the  passage  which  I  allude 
to,  after  referring  to  the  military  "blunders"  of  Mithridates, 
Frederick  the  Great,  Napoleon,  Pyrrhus,  and  Hannibal,  uses 
these  remarkable  words:  "The  Duke  of  Wellington  is,  I  be- 
lieve, the  only  general  in  whose  conduct  of  war  we  cannot  dis- 
cover any  important  mistake."  Not  that  it  is  to  be  supposed 
that  the  duke's  merits  were  simply  of  a  negative  order,  or 
that  he  was  merely  a  cautious,  phlegmatic  general,  fit  only  for 
defensive  warfare,  as  some  recent  French  historians  have  de- 
scribed him.  On  the  contrary,  he  was  bold  even  to  audacity 
when  boldness  was  required.  "The  intrepid  advance  and 
fight  at  Assaye,  the  crossing  of  the  Douro,  and  the  movement 


426  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1815 

on  Talavera  in  1809,  the  advance  to  Madrid  and  Burgos  in 
18 1 2,  the  action  before  Bayonne  in  18 13,  and  the  desperate 
stand  made  at  Waterloo  itself,  when  more  tamely  prudent 
generals  would  have  retreated  beyond  Brussels,  place  this 
beyond  a  doubt." 

The  overthrow  of  the  French  military  power  at  Waterloo 
was  so  complete  that  the  subsequent  events  of  the  brief  cam- 
paign have  little  interest.  Lamartine  truly  says  :  "This  defeat 
left  nothing  undecided  in  future  events,  for  victory  had  given 
judgment.  The  war  began  and  ended  in  a  single  battle." 
Napoleon  himself  recognized  instantly  and  fully  the  deadly 
nature  of  the  blow  which  had  been  dealt  to  his  empire.  In 
his  flight  from  the  battle-field  he  first  halted  at  Charleroi,  but 
the  approach  of  the  pursuing  Prussians  drove  him  thence  be- 
fore he  had  rested  there  an  hour.  With  difficulty  getting 
clear  of  the  wrecks  of  his  own  army,  he  reached  Philippeville, 
where  he  remained  a  few  hours,  and  sent  orders  to  the  French 
generals  in  the  various  extremities  of  France  to  converge  with 
their  troops  upon  Paris.  He  ordered  Soult  to  collect  the  fugi- 
tives of  his  own  force  and  lead  them  to  Laon.  He  then  hur- 
ried forward  to  Paris,  and  reached  his  capital  before  the  news 
of  his  own  defeat.  But  the  stern  truth  soon  transpired.  At 
the  demand  of  the  Chambers  of  Peers  and  Representatives,  he 
abandoned  the  throne  by  a  second  and  final  abdication  on  the 
22d  of  June.  On  the  29th  of  June  he  left  the  neighborhood 
of  Paris,  and  proceeded  to  Rochefort  in  the  hope  of  escap- 
ing to  America ;  but  the  coast  was  strictly  watched,  and  on 
the  15th  of  July  the  ex-emperor  surrendered  himself  on  board 
of  the  English  man-of-war  Bellerophon. 

Meanwhile  the  allied  armies  had  advanced  steadily  upon 
Paris,  driving  before  them  Grouchy's  corps  and  the  scanty 
force  which  Soult  had  succeeded  in  rallying  at  Laon.  Cam- 
bray,  Peronne,  and  other  fortresses  were  speedily  captured ; 
and  by  the  29th  of  June  the  invaders  were  taking  their  posi- 
tions in  front  of  Paris.  The  Provisional  Government,  which 
acted  in  the  French  capital  after  the  emperor's  abdication, 
opened  negotiations  with  the  allied  chiefs.  Bliicher,  in  his 
quenchless  hatred  of  the  French,  was  eager  to  reject  all  pro- 
posals for  a  suspension  of  hostilities,  and  to  assault  and  storm 
the  city.     But  the  sager  and  calmer  spirit  of  Wellington  pre- 


1815]  BATTLE   OF  WATERLOO  427 

vailed  over  his  colleague ;  the  entreated  armistice  was  granted ; 
and  on  the  3d  of  July  the  capitulation  of  Paris  terminated  the 
war  of  the  battle  of  Waterloo. 


In  closing  our  observations  on  this  the  last  of  the  Decisive 
Battles  of  the  World,  it  is  pleasing  to  contrast  the  year  which 
it  signalized  with  the  year  that  is  now 10  passing  over  our 
heads.  We  have  not  (and  long  may  we  be  without !)  the  stern 
excitement  of  martial  strife,  and  we  see  no  captive  standards 
of  our  European  neighbors  brought  in  triumph  to  our  shrines. 
But  we  behold  an  infinitely  prouder  spectacle.  We  see  the 
banners  of  every  civilized  nation  waving  over  the  arena  of 
our  competition  with  each  other,  in  the  arts  that  minister  to 
our  race's  support  and  happiness,  and  not  to  its  suffering  and 
destruction. 

"  Peace  hath  her  victories 
No  less  renowned  than  war"  ; 

and  no  battle-field  ever  witnessed  a  victory  more  noble  than 
that  which  England,  under  her  sovereign  lady  and  her  royal 
prince,  is  now  teaching  the  peoples  of  the  earth  to  achieve 
over  selfish  prejudices  and  international  feuds,  in  the  great 
cause  of  the  general  promotion  of  the  industry  and  welfare 
of  mankind. 

Notes 

1  Wellington  had  but  a  small  part  of  his  old  peninsular  army  in  Belgium. 
The  flower  of  it  had  been  sent  on  the  expeditions  against  America.  His 
troops,  in  181 5,  were  chiefly  second  battalions,  or  regiments  lately  filled  up 
with  new  recruits. 

2  The  fifth  corps  was  under  Count  Rapp  at  Strasburg. 

8  Not  to  be  confounded  with  the  hamlet  of  La  Haye  at  the  extreme  left 
of  the  British  line. 

4  Prince  Frederick's  force  remained  at  Hal,  and  took  no  part  in  the  battle 
of  the  1 8th.  The  reason  for  this  arrangement  (which  has  been  much 
caviled  at)  may  be  best  given  in  the  words  of  Baron  Muffling  :  "  The  duke 
had  retired  from  Quatre  Bras  in  three  columns,  by  three  chausse'es ;  and 
on  the  evening  of  the  17th,  Prince  Frederick  of  Orange  was  at  Hal,  Lord 
Hill  at  Braine  l'Alleud,  and  the  Prince  of  Orange  with  the  reserve  at  Mont 
St.  Jean.  This  distribution  was  necessary,  as  Napoleon  could  dispose  of 
these  three  roads  for  his  advance  on  Brussels.  Napoleon  on  the  17th  had 
pressed  on  by  Genappe  as  far  as  Rossomme.     On  the  two  other  roads  no 


428  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1815 

enemy  had  yet  shown  himself.  On  the  18th  the  offensive  was  taken  by 
Napoleon  on  its  greatest  scale,  but  still  the  Nivelles  road  was  not  over- 
stepped by  his  left  wing.  These  circumstances  made  it  possible  to  draw 
Prince  Frederick  to  the  army,  which  would  certainly  have  been  done  if 
entirely  new  circumstances  had  not  arisen.  The  duke  had,  twenty-four 
hours  before,  pledged  himself  to  accept  a  battle  at  Mont  St.  Jean  if  Bliicher 
would  assist  him  there  with  one  corps  of  25,000  men.  This  being  promised, 
the  duke  was  taking  his  measures  for  defense,  when  he  learned  that,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  one  corps  promised,  Bliicher  was  actually  already  on  the  march 
with  his  whole  force,  to  break  in  by  Planchenoit  on  Napoleon's  flank  and 
rear.  If  three  corps  of  the  Prussian  army  should  penetrate  by  the  unguarded 
plateau  of  Rossomme,  which  was  not  iinprobable,  Napoleon  would  be  thrust 
from  his  line  of  retreat  by  Genappe,  and  might  possibly  lose  even  that  by 
Nivelles.  In  this  case  Prince  Frederick,  with  his  18,000  men  (who  might 
be  accounted  superfluous  at  Mont  St.  Jean),  might  have  rendered  the  most 
essential  service."  See  Muffling,  p.  246,  and  the  Quarterly  Review,  No.  178. 
It  is  also  worthy  of  observation  that  Napoleon  actually  detached  a  force  of 
2000  cavalry  to  threaten  Hal,  though  they  returned  to  the  main  French 
army  during  the  night  of  the  17th. 

5  See  especially  Sir  W.  Napier's  glorious  pictures  of  the  battles  of  Busaco 
and  Albuera.  The  theoretical  advantages  of  the  attack  in  column,  and  its 
peculiar  fitness  for  a  French  army,  are  set  forth  in  the  Chevalier  Folard's 
"  Traite  de  la  Colonne,"  prefixed  to  the  first  volume  of  his  "  Polybius."  See 
also  the  preface  to  his  sixth  volume. 

6  I  have  heard  the  remark  made  that  Grouchy  twice  had  in  his  hands  the 
power  of  changing  the  destinies  of  Europe,  and  twice  wanted  nerve  to  act : 
first,  when  he  flinched  from  landing  the  French  army  at  Bantry  Bay  in  1796 
(he  was  second  in  command  to  Hoche,  whose  ship  was  blown  back  by  a 
storm),  and,  secondly,  when  he  failed  to  lead  his  whole  force  from  Wavre 
to  the  scene  of  decisive  conflict  at  Waterloo.  But  such  were  the  arrange- 
ments of  the  Prussian  general  that  even  if  Grouchy  had  marched  upon 
Waterloo,  he  would  have  been  held  in  check  by  the  nearest  Prussian  corps, 
or  certainly  by  the  two  nearest  ones,  while  the  rest  proceeded  to  join  Well- 
ington. This,  however,  would  have  diminished  the  number  of  Prussians 
who  appeared  at  Waterloo,  and  (what  is  still  more  important)  would  have 
kept  them  back  to  a  later  hour. 

There  are  some  very  valuable  remarks  on  this  subject  in  an  article  on 
the  "  Life  of  Bliicher,"  usually  attributed  to  Sir  Francis  Head.  The  Prussian 
writer,  General  Clausewitz,  is  there  cited  as  "  expressing  a  positive  opinion, 
in  which  every  military  critic  but  a  Frenchman  must  concur,  that,  even  had 
the  whole  of  Grouchy's  force  been  at  Napoleon's  disposal,  the  duke  had 
nothing  to  fear  pending  Blucher's  arrival. 

"  The  duke  is  often  talked  of  as  having  exhausted  his  reserves  in  the 
action.  This  is  another  gross  error,  which  Clausewitz  has  thoroughly  dis- 
posed of  (p.  125).  He  enumerates  the  tenth  British  brigade,  the  division 
of  Chasse",  and  the  cavalry  of  Collaert  as  having  been  little  or  not  at  all 
engaged;  and  he  might  have  also  added  two  brigades  of  light  cavalry." 
The  fact,  also,  that  Wellington  did  not  at  any  part  of  the  day  order  up 


1815]  BATTLE   OF   WATERLOO  429 

Prince  Frederick's  corps  from  Hal  is  a  conclusive  proof  that  the  duke  was 
not  so  distressed  as  some  writers  have  represented.  Hal  is  not  ten  miles 
from  the  field  of  Waterloo. 

7  "  On  came  the  whirlwind  —  like  the  last 
But  fiercest  sweep  of  tempest  blast  — 
On  came  the  whirlwind ;  steel-gleams  broke 
Like  lightning  through  the  rolling  smoke ; 

The  war  was  waked  anew  : 
Three  hundred  cannon-mouths  roared  loud, 
And  from  their  throats,  with  flash  and  cloud, 

Their  showers  of  iron  threw. 
Beneath  their  fire,  in  full  career, 
Rushed  on  the  ponderous  cuirassier ; 
The  lancer  couched  his  ruthless  spear, 
And,  hurrying  as  to  havoc  near, 

The  cohorts'  eagles  flew. 
In  one  dark  torrent,  broad  and  strong, 
The  advancing  onset  rolled  along, 
Forth  harbingered  by  fierce  acclaim, 
That,  from  the  shroud  of  smoke  and  flame, 
Pealed  wildly  the  imperial  name. 

"  But  on  the  British  heart  were  lost 
The  terrors  of  the  charging  host ; 
For  not  an  eye  the  storm  that  viewed 
Changed  its  proud  glance  of  fortitude, 
Nor  was  one  forward  footstep  stayed, 
As  dropped  the  dying  and  the  dead. 
Fast  as  their  ranks  the  thunders  tear, 
Fast  they  renewed  each  serried  square ; 
And  on  the  wounded  and  the  slain 
Closed  their  diminished  files  again, 
Till  from  their  line,  scarce  spear's  lengths  three, 
Emerging  from  the  smoke  they  see 
Helmet,  and  plume,  and  panoply : 

Then  waked  their  fire  at  once  ! 
Each  musketeer's  revolving  knell 
As  fast,  as  regularly  fell 
As  when  they  practise  to  display 
Their  discipline  on  festal  day. 

Then  down  went  helm  and  lance, 
Down  were  the  eagle  banners  sent, 
Down  reeling  steeds  and  riders  went, 
Corslets  were  pierced,  and  pennons  rent ; 

And,  to  augment  the  fray, 
Wheeled  full  against  their  staggering  flanks, 
The  English  horsemen's  foaming  ranks 

Forced  their  resistless  way. 


430  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1815 

Then  to  the  musket-knell  succeeds 

The  clash  of  swords,  the  neigh  of  steeds  ; 

As  plies  the  smith  his  clanging  trade, 

Against  the  cuirass  rang  the  blade ; 

And  while  amid  their  close  array 

The  well-served  cannon  rent  their  way, 

And  while  amid  their  scattered  band 

Raged  the  fierce  rider's  bloody  brand, 

Recoiled,  in  common  rout  and  fear, 

Lancer  and  guard  and  cuirassier, 

Horsemen  and  foot  —  a  mingled  host, 

Their  leaders  fall'n,  their  standards  lost."  —  Scott. 

8  "As  far  as  the  French  accounts  would  lead  us  to  infer,  it  appears  that 
the  losses  among  Napoleon's  staff  were  comparatively  trifling.  On  this 
subject,  perhaps,  the  marked  contrast  afforded  by  the  following  anecdotes, 
which  have  been  related  to  me  on  excellent  authority,  may  tend  to  throw 
some  light.  At  one  period  of  the  battle,  when  the  duke  was  surrounded 
by  several  of  his  staff,  it  was  very  evident  that  the  group  had  become  the 
object  of  the  fire  of  a  French  battery.  The  shot  fell  fast  about  them,  gen- 
erally striking  and  turning  up  the  ground  on  which  they  stood.  Their  horses 
became  restive,  and  '  Copenhagen '  himself  so  fidgety  that  the  duke,  getting 
impatient,  and  having  reasons  for  remaining  on  the  spot,  said  to  those  about 
him,  '  Gentlemen,  we  are  rather  too  close  together —  better  to  divide  a 
little.'  Subsequently,  at  another  point  of  the  line,  an  officer  of  artillery 
came  up  to  the  duke,  and  stated  that  he  had  a  distinct  view  of  Napoleon, 
attended  by  his  staff;  that  he  had  the  guns  of  his  battery  well  pointed  in 
that  direction,  and  was  prepared  to  fire.  His  Grace  instantly  and  em- 
phatically exclaimed,  '  No  !  no  !  I'll  not  allow  it.  It  is  not  the  business  of 
commanders  to  be  firing  upon  each  other.'"  —  Siborne.  How  different  is 
this  from  Napoleon's  conduct  at  the  battle  of  Dresden,  when  he  personally 
directed  the  fire  of  the  battery,  which,  as  he  thought,  killed  the  Emperor 
Alexander,  and  actually  killed  Moreau. 

9  "  Ouvrard,  who  attended  Napoleon  as  chief  commissary  of  the  French 
army  on  that  occasion,  told  me  that  Napoleon  was  suffering  from  a  com- 
plaint which  made  it  very  painful  for  him  to  ride."  —  Lord  Ellesmere. 

10  Written  in  June,  1851. 


1863]  BATTLE   OF   GETTYSBURG  43 1 


CHAPTER   XVI 

The  Battle  of  Gettysburg,  1S63 

WHEN  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  abrogated, 
in  1854,  large  numbers  of  people  in  the  Northern 
States  of  the  American  Union,  who  had  been 
accustomed  to  look  leniently  upon  the  institution  of  slavery 
in  the  Southern  States,  and  were  disposed  to  grant  it  every 
indulgence  in  order  to  preserve  the  Union  and  maintain  a 
condition  of  peace,  awoke  to  a  sense  of  its  aggressive  nature, 
and  took  a  resolution  that  it  should  spread  no  farther. 
Hence  the  formation  of  the  Republican  party,  the  only  prac- 
ticable antislavery  organization  that  the  country  had  known. 
Its  distinctive  principle  was  opposition  to  any  spread  of 
slavery  into  the  Territories,  or  the  admission  of  any  more 
slave  States.  It  disclaimed  any  purpose  of  interfering  with 
the  institution  where  it  already  existed,  believing  that,  if  con- 
fined to  the  territory  it  then  occupied,  it  would  slowly  and 
peacefully  die  out.  The  slaveholders  probably  entertained 
the  same  belief,  and,  being  determined  that  the  institution 
should  not  die,  resolved  upon  the  alternative  of  secession 
from  the  Union  (which  they  had  long  threatened),  in  case  of 
the  success  of  the  Republican  party.  They  founded  their 
claim  of  the  privilege  to  do  this  upon  the  theory  that,  in 
entering  the  Union,  no  State  surrendered  its  sovereignty, 
but  any  one  was  at  liberty  to  withdraw  whenever  it  saw 
fit  to  do  so.  Hardly  anybody  in  the  Northern  States,  of 
whatever  political  affiliations,  admitted  the  soundness  of  such 
an  interpretation  of  the  National  Constitution.  Not  only 
did  they  point  to  the  history  of  that  instrument,  which  itself 
declares  its  purpose  to  be  "  to  form  a  more  perfect  Union,"  but 
they  appealed  to  the  fact  that,  in  surrendering  the  right  to 
coin  money,  make  war,  negotiate  treaties,  and  levy  customs 
on  imports,  the  States  had  actually  surrendered  every  attri- 


432  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1863 

bute  of  sovereignty.  Behind  all  the  argumentation,  and 
more  powerful  than  any  possible  construction  of  constitution 
or  compromises,  stood  the  fact  that  the  proposed  secession, 
according  to  the  testimony  of  history,  was  against  nature. 
In  all  parts  of  the  world  it  had  been  demonstrated  that  the 
tendency  of  civilization  was  to  create  union,  not  secession, 
within  natural  boundaries.  Thus,  for  instance,  the  Hep- 
tarchy had  become  Great  Britain  ;  Normandy,  Brittany,  Lor- 
raine, Poitou,  etc.,  had  become  France ;  Castile,  Aragon, 
Leon,  etc.,  had  become  Spain ;  but  France  and  Spain  had 
not  united,  because  the  Pyrenees  Mountains  made  a  natural 
boundary  between  them.  The  cantons  of  Switzerland  had 
united ;  Norway  and  Sweden  had  formed  one  kingdom ; 
Italy  was  on  the  eve  of  unification,  and  Germany  was  work- 
ing toward  it.  An  American  citizen  did  not  have  to  be  a 
very  deep  thinker  to  note  the  fact  that  between  the  free 
States  and  the  slave  States  there  was  no  sufficient  natural 
boundary,  and  that  separation  meant  two  standing  armies 
and  constant  danger  of  war.  Hence,  when  the  trial  came, 
the  Northern  people  readily  accepted  the  risk  and  sacrifice  of 
immediate  and  bloody  strife,  rather  than  bequeath  to  their 
descendants  a  state  of  continual  alarm  and  militarism  like 
that  of  Europe. 

The  pretext  for  secession  was  that  the  election,  in  i860, 
of  Abraham  Lincoln,  the  candidate  of  the  Republican  party, 
was  a  menace  to  the  domestic  institutions  of  the  Southern 
States  so  serious  that  their  only  safety  lay  in  a  separation 
from  the  Union.  This  ignored  the  fact  that  when  Mr.  Lin- 
coln was  elected  President  a  majority  of  the  Congressmen 
elected  at  the  same  time  were  politically  opposed  to  him,  so 
that,  had  the  Southern  members  remained  in  their  seats,  he 
could  have  accomplished  nothing  detrimental  to  their  section, 
had  he  wanted  to ;  and  it  also  overlooked  the  fact  that,  since 
there  was  no  natural  boundary  between  the  free  States  and 
the  slave  States,  such  a  separation  would  only  facilitate  the 
escape  of  the  slaves  from  bondage  and  hasten  the  natural 
decay  of  the  institution.  But  it  was  a  case  in  which  temper 
had  a  louder  voice  than  reason,  and  ignorance  displayed  its 
usual  assertiveness.  From  the  very  differences  in  the  mode 
of  life  at  the  South  and  at  the  North,  the  Southerners  were 


1863]  BATTLE   OF   GETTYSBURG  433 

more  contentious  in  their  disposition,  and  more  accustomed 
to  the  exercise  of  force,  than  their  fellow  citizens  of  the  North  ; 
and  they  had  come  to  consider  the  Northern  population  as 
made  up  principally  of  plodding  mechanics  and  pusillanimous 
shopkeepers.  Athough  the  census  of  i860  showed  a  popula- 
tion of  twenty  millions  in  the  Northern  States  and  but  ten 
millions  in  the  Southern  States,  they  entertained  not  the 
slightest  doubt  of  their  ability  to  establish  their  independence 
by  a  rapid  and  brilliant  exercise  of  military  power.  Besides 
accounting  every  Southern  man  equal  as  a  soldier  to  two  or 
three  Northern  men,  they  expected  help  from  that  party  in 
the  North  which  had  always  voted  with  them,  and  they  were 
confident  also  that  England  and  France  would  not  long  en- 
dure the  stoppage  of  their  cotton  industries,  and  would  be 
only  too  glad  of  an  opportunity  to  assist  in  the  destruction  of 
the  great  Republic. 

South  Carolina  led  the  way  out  of  the  Union  with  an  ordi- 
nance of  secession  in  December,  i860,  and  the  other  cotton 
States  followed  in  rapid  succession.  In  February,  1861,  they 
formed  at  Montgomery,  Alabama,  a  new  government  under 
the  name  of  The  Confederate  States  of  America.  Its  con- 
stitution was  a  close  copy  of  that  of  the  United  States,  except 
as  to  the  sections  affecting  slavery,  and  it  gave  no  intimation  of 
any  recognition  of  State  sovereignty  or  a  right  of  secession. 
Its  first  acts  of  war  consisted  in  seizing  the  forts,  arsenals, 
and  other  United  States  property  within  its  territory.  At 
Charleston  and  Pensacola  it  was  not  able  to  do  this  without  a 
struggle.  Fort  Sumter,  in  Charleston  harbor,  was  held  by  a 
small  garrison  of  United  States  troops  commanded  by  Major 
Robert  Anderson,  who  refused  to  surrender  except  on  com- 
pulsion. Thereupon  the  Confederates  erected  batteries  at 
every  point  from  which  it  could  be  reached  by  shot,  and  on 
April  12,  1 86 1,  opened  fire.  After  a  bombardment  of  two 
days  the  fort  was  surrendered.  This  action  aroused  the 
people  of  both  sections,  and  from  that  day  the  avoidance  of 
actual  war  was  no  longer  possible.  Both  sides  raised  and 
equipped  volunteer  armies  with  remarkable  rapidity,  and 
illusions  of  rapid  conquest  on  either  side  were  soon  dispelled 
by  the  discovery  that  everybody  was  in  earnest,  and  that  the 
rank  and  file  of  both  armies  needed  only  discipline  and  experi- 


434  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1863 

ence  to  make  them  superior,  as  fighting  machines,  to  any- 
thing that  ever  had  been  known.  Before  the  conflict  came 
to  a  close,  there  were  charges  and  other  displays  of  valor  and 
skill  that  eclipsed  anything  in  the  history  of  European  warfare. 

In  the  West  the  National  forces  made  comparatively  rapid 
progress.  Missouri  had  been  prevented  from  joining  in  the 
secession  movement  in  1861,  and  Kentucky  had  steadily  re- 
fused to  do  so.  The  line  of  defense  that  the  Confederates 
attempted  to  establish  along  the  boundary  of  Kentucky  and 
Tennessee  was  swept  away  early  in  1862  by  the  battles  of 
Big  Sandy  and  Mill  Spring,  and  the  capture  of  Forts  Henry 
and  Donelson.  Two  months  later  New  Orleans,  by  far  the 
largest  city  in  the  Confederacy,  was  captured  by  the  fleet 
under  Farragut,  and  it  remained  in  the  possession  of  the 
National  forces  to  the  end.  Somewhat  later  still,  the  army 
under  Grant  went  up  the  Tennessee  and  captured  Iuka  and 
Corinth.  These  successes  opened  the  back  door  of  the  Con- 
federacy, as  it  was  expressed,  and  made  it  reasonably  certain 
that  sooner  or  later  the  conquering  forces  would  penetrate  to 
the  very  heart  of  the  country. 

In  the  East,  the  progress  was  slower,  for  three  reasons : 
First,  in  commanders,  the  National  armies  there  were  less  fortu- 
nate, and  the  Confederate  armies  more  fortunate,  than  at  the 
West.  Second,  at  the  West  the  National  armies  had  only 
to  follow  the  courses  of  the  streams  and  attack  artificial  lines 
of  defense,  while  at  the  East  they  had  to  cross  the  streams 
and  attack  natural  lines  of  defense.  Third,  both  capitals 
(Washington  and  Richmond)  were  at  the  East,  and  the  first 
anxiety  of  each  Government  was  to  protect  its  capital.  For 
this  reason,  also,  attention,  both  in  the  United  States  and  in 
Europe,  was  directed  more  to  operations  in  the  East. 

The  battle  of  Bull  Run  (July  21,  1861)  was  a  Confederate 
victory.  McClellan's  campaign  on  the  peninsula,  in  May  and 
June,  1862,  in  which  he  attempted  to  take  Richmond  by  ap- 
proaching from  the  east,  was  a  failure,  though  no  one  of  the 
half  dozen  battles  was  a  complete  Confederate  victory.  The 
second  battle  of  Bull  Run,  or  Groveton  (August  29,  30,  1862), 
was  a  Confederate  victory,  and  is  notable  as  the  only  clear  vic- 
tory ever  achieved  by  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  when 
acting  on  the  offensive.     In  the  battle  of  the  Antietam  (Sep- 


1 863]  BATTLE   OF   GETTYSBURG  435 

tember  17,  1862)  the  Confederates  were  defeated  and  their  first 
serious  attempt  to  invade  the  North  was  frustrated.  In  the  bat- 
tle of  Fredericksburg  (December  13,  1862)  the  Confederates 
won  another  victory  by  simply  standing  on  the  defensive  in 
an  impregnable  position  which  the  National  commander  was 
unwise  enough  to  assail  in  front.  Chancellorsville  (May 
2,  3,  1863),  might  have  been  a  National  victory  had  not  the 
commander  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  been  disabled  suffi- 
ciently to  disconcert  all  his  plans,  but  not  enough  to  compel 
him  to  retire  from  the  field.  Here  again  the  Confederate 
army  was  strategically  on  the  defensive,  though  tactically  it 
assumed  the  offensive  for  a  part  of  the  engagement. 

After  this  series  of  victories,  public  opinion  in  the  South 
began  to  demand  that  the  army  under  Lee  should  invade  the 
North,  or  at  least  make  a  bold  movement  toward  Washington. 
Public  opinion  is  not  often  very  discriminating  in  an  exciting 
crisis ;  and  on  this  occasion  public  opinion  failed  to  discrimi- 
nate between  the  comparative  ease  with  which  an  army  in  a 
strong  position  may  repel  a  faultily  planned  or  badly  man- 
aged attack,  and  the  difficulties  that  must  beset  the  same 
army  when  it  leaves  its  base,  launches  forth  into  the  enemy's 
country,  and  is  obliged  to  maintain  a  constantly  lengthening 
line  of  communication.  The  Southern  public  could  not  see 
why,  since  the  Army  of  Northern  Virginia  had  won  two  vic- 
tories on  the  Rappahannock,  it  might  not  march  forward  at 
once,  lay  New  York  and  Philadelphia  under  contribution,  and 
dictate  peace  and  Southern  independence  in  the  Capitol  at 
Washington.  Whether  the  Confederate  Government  shared 
this  feeling  or  not,  it  acted  in  accordance  with  it ;  and  whether 
Lee  approved  it  or  not,  he  was  obliged  to  obey.  Yet,  in  the 
largest  consideration  of  the  problem,  this  demand  for  an  inva- 
sion of  the  North  was  correct,  though  the  result  proved  dis- 
astrous. For  experience  shows  that  purely  defensive  warfare 
will  not  accomplish  anything.  Lee's  army  had  received  a 
heavy  reenforcement  by  the  arrival  of  Longstreet's  corps,  its 
regiments  had  been  filled  up  with  conscripts,  it  had  unbounded 
confidence  in  itself,  and  this  was  the  time,  if  ever,  to  put  the 
plan  for  independence  to  the  crucial  test  of  offensive  warfare. 
Many  subsidiary  considerations  strengthened  the  argument. 
About  thirty  thousand  of  Hooker's  men  had  been  enlisted 


43^  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1863 

in  the  spring  of  1861,  for  two  years,  and  their  term  was  now 
expiring.  Vicksburg  was  besieged  by  Grant,  before  whom 
nothing  had  stood  as  yet ;  and  its  fall  would  open  the  Missis- 
sippi and  cut  the  Confederacy  in  two,  which  might  seal  the 
fate  of  the  new  Government  unless  the  shock  were  neutral- 
ized by  a  great  victory  in  the  East.  Volunteering  had  fallen 
off  in  the  North,  conscription  was  resorted  to,  the  Democratic 
party  there  had  become  more  hostile  to  the  Government  and 
loudly  abusive  of  President  Lincoln  and  his  advisers,  and 
there  were  signs  of  riotous  resistance  to  a  draft.  Finally,  the 
Confederate  agents  in  Europe  reported  that  anything  like  a 
great  Confederate  victory  would  secure  immediate  recognition, 
if  not  armed  intervention,  from  England  and  France. 

Hooker,  who  had  lost  a  golden  opportunity  by  his  aberra- 
tion or  his  accident  at  Chancellorsville,  had  come  to  his  senses 
again  and  was  alert,  active,  and  clear-headed.  As  early  as 
May  28,  1863,  he  informed  the  President  that  something  was 
stirring  in  the  camp  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  and  that  a 
northward  movement  might  be  expected.  On  the  3d  of  June 
Lee  began  his  movement,  and  by  the  8th  two  of  his  three 
corps  (those  of  Ewell  and  Longstreet)  were  at  Culpeper, 
while  A.  P.  Hill's  corps  held  the  lines  on  the  Rappahannock. 

It  was  known  that  the  entire  Confederate  cavalry,  under 
Stuart,  was  at  Culpeper,  and  Hooker  sent  all  his  cavalry, 
under  Pleasonton,  with  two  brigades  of  infantry,  to  attack  it 
there.  The  assault  was  to  be  made  in  two  converging  columns, 
under  Buford  and  Gregg ;  but  this  plan  was  disconcerted  by 
the  fact  that  the  enemy's  cavalry,  intent  upon  masking  the 
movement  of  the  great  body  of  infantry  and  protecting  its 
flank,  had  advanced  to  Brandy  Station.  Here  it  was  struck 
first  by  Buford  and  afterward  by  Gregg,  and  there  was  bloody 
righting,  with  the  advantage  at  first  in  favor  of  the  National 
troops,  but  the  two  columns  failed  to  unite  during  the  action, 
and  finally  withdrew.  The  loss  was  somewhat  more  than 
five  hundred  men  on  each  side.  Each  side  asserted  that  it 
had  accomplished  its  object — Pleasonton  in  ascertaining  the 
movements  of  Lee's  army,  Stuart  in  having  driven  back 
his  opponent.  Some  of  the  heaviest  fighting  was  for  pos- 
session of  a  height  known  as  Fleetwood  Hill,  and  the  Con- 
federates name  the  action  the  battle  of  Fleetwood.     It  is  of 


1863]  BATTLE   OF   GETTYSBURG  437 

special  interest  as  marking  the  turning-point  in  cavalry  service 
during  the  war.  Up  to  that  time  the  Confederate  cavalry 
had  been  generally  superior  to  the  National ;  this  action  — 
a  cavalry  fight  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term,  between  the 
entire  mounted  forces  of  the  two  armies  — was  a  drawn  battle ; 
and  thenceforth  the  National  cavalry  exhibited  superiority 
in  an  accelerating  ratio,  till  finally  nothing  mounted  on  South- 
ern horses  could  stand  before  the  magnificent  squadrons  led 
by  Sheridan,  Custer,  Kilpatrick,  and  Wilson. 

Hooker  now  knew  that  the  movement  he  had  anticipated 
was  in  progress,  and  he  was  very  decided  in  his  opinion  as  to 
what  should  be  done.  By  the  13th  of  June,  Lee  had  advanced 
Ewell's  corps  beyond  the  Blue  Ridge,  and  it  was  marching 
down  the  Shenandoah  valley,  while  Hill's  was  still  in  the 
intrenchments  on  the  Rapidan,  and  Longstreet's  was  midway 
between,  at  Culpeper.  Hooker  asked  to  be  allowed  to  inter- 
pose his  whole  army  between  these  widely  separated  parts  of 
its  antagonist  and  defeat  them  in  detail ;  but  with  a  man  like 
Halleck  for  military  adviser  at  Washington,  it  was  useless  to 
propose  any  bold  or  brilliant  stroke.  Hooker  was  forbidden 
to  do  this,  and  ordered  to  keep  his  army  between  the  enemy 
and  the  capital.  He  therefore  left  his  position  on  the  Rap- 
pahannock, and  moved  toward  Washington,  along  the  line  of 
the  Orange  and  Alexandria  Railroad.  Ewell  moved  rapidly 
down  the  Shenandoah  valley,  and  attacked  Winchester,  which 
was  held  by  General  Milroy  with  about  ten  thousand  men. 
Milroy  made  a  gallant  defense ;  but  after  a  stubborn  fight  his 
force  was  broken  and  defeated,  and  about  four  thousand  of 
them  became  prisoners.  The  survivors  escaped  to  Harper's 
Ferry. 

The  corps  of  Hill  and  Longstreet  now  moved,  Hill  follow- 
ing Ewell  into  the  Shenandoah  valley,  and  Longstreet  skirting 
the  Blue  Ridge  along  its  eastern  base.  Pleasonton's  cavalry, 
reconnoitering  these  movements,  met  Stuart's  again  at  Aldie, 
near  a  gap  in  the  Bull  Run  Mountains,  and  had  a  sharp  fight; 
and  there  were  also  cavalry  actions  at  Middleburg  and  Upper- 
ville.  Other  Confederate  cavalry  had  already  crossed  the 
Potomac,  made  a  raid  as  far  as  Chambersburg,  and  returned 
with  supplies  to  Ewell.  On  the  22d,  Ewell's  corps  crossed 
at  Shepherdstown  and  Williamsport,  and  moved  up  the  Cum- 


438  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1863 

berland  valley  to  Chambersburg.  A  panic  ensued  among  the 
inhabitants  of  that  region,  who  hastened  to  drive  off  their  cat- 
tle and  horses  to  save  them  from  seizure.  The  Governors  of 
New  York  and  Pennsylvania  were  called  upon  for  militia,  and 
forwarded  several  regiments  to  be  interposed  between  the 
enemy's  advance  and  Philadelphia  and  Harrisburg.  The 
other  two  corps  of  Lee's  army  crossed  the  Potomac  on  the 
24th  and  25th,  where  Ewell  had  crossed;  and  Hooker,  moving 
on  a  line  nearer  Washington,  crossed  with  his  whole  army  at 
Edward's  Ferry  on  the  25th  and  26th,  marching  thence  to 
Frederick.  He  now  proposed  to  send  Slocum's  corps  to  the 
western  side  of  the  South  Mountain  range,  have  it  unite  with 
a  force  of  eleven  thousand  men  under  French  that  lay  use- 
less at  Harper's  Ferry,  and  throw  a  powerful  column  upon 
Lee's  communications,  capture  his  trains,  and  attack  his  army 
in  the  rear.  But  again  he  came  into  collision  with  the  stub- 
born Halleck,  who  would  not  consent  to  the  abandonment, 
even  temporarily,  of  Harper's  Ferry,  though  the  experience 
of  the  Antietam  campaign,  when  he  attempted  to  hold  it  in 
the  same  way  and  lost  its  whole  garrison,  should  have  taught 
him  better.  This  new  cause  of  trouble,  added  to  previous 
disagreements,  was  more  than  Hooker  could  stand,  and  on 
the  27th  he  asked  to  be  relieved  from  command  of  the  army. 
His  request  was  promptly  complied  with,  and  the  next  morn- 
ing the  command  was  given  to  General  Meade. 

George  Gordon  Meade,  then  in  his  forty-ninth  year,  was  a 
graduate  of  West  Point,  had  served  through  the  Mexican 
war,  had  done  engineer  duty  in  the  survey  of  the  great  lakes, 
had  been  with  McClellan  on  the  peninsula,  and  had  com- 
manded a  corps  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  at  Antietam,  at 
Fredericksburg,  and  at  Chancellorsville.  The  first  thing  he 
did  on  assuming  command  was  partly  what  Hooker  was  for- 
bidden to  do  —  he  ordered  the  evacuation  of  Harper's  Ferry, 
and  the  movement  of  its  garrison  to  Frederick  as  a  reserve. 

At  this  time,  June  28th,  one  portion  of  Lee's  army  was  at 
Chambersburg,  or  between  that  place  and  Gettysburg,  another 
at  York  and  Carlisle,  and  a  part  of  his  cavalry  was  within 
sight  of  the  spires  of  Harrisburg.  The  main  body  of  the 
cavalry  had  gone  off  on  a  raid,  Stuart  having  an  ambition  to 
ride  a  third  time  round  the  Army  of   the   Potomac.     This 


1863]  BATTLE   OF   GETTYSBURG  439 

absence  of  his  cavalry  left  Lee  in  ignorance  of  the  move- 
ments of  his  adversary,  whom  he  appears  to  have  expected 
to  remain  quietly  on  the  south  side  of  the  Potomac.  When 
suddenly  he  found  his  communications  in  danger,  he  called 
back  Ewell  from  York  and  Carlisle,  and  ordered  the  concen- 
tration of  all  his  forces  at  Gettysburg.  Many  converging 
roads  lead  into  that  town,  and  its  convenience  for  such  con- 
centration was  obvious.  Meade  was  also  advancing  his  army 
toward  Gettysburg,  though  with  a  more  uncertain  step — as 
was  necessary,  since  his  object  was  to  find  Lee's  army  and 
fight  it,  wherever  it  might  go.  His  cavalry,  under  Pleason- 
ton,  was  doing  good  service,  and  that  General  advanced  a 
division  under  Buford  on  the  29th  to  Gettysburg,  with  orders 
to  delay  the  enemy  till  the  army  could  come  up.  Meade  had 
some  expectation  of  bringing  on  the  expected  battle  at  Pipe 
Creek,  southeast  of  Gettysburg,  where  he  marked  out  a  good 
defensive  line  ;  but  the  First  Corps,  under  General  John  F. 
Reynolds,  advanced  rapidly  to  Gettysburg,  and  on  the  1st  of 
July  encountered  west  of  the  town  a  portion  of  the  enemy 
coming  in  from  Chambersburg.  Lee .  had  about  seventy- 
three  thousand,  five  hundred  men  (infantry  and  artillery), 
and  Meade  about  eighty-two  thousand,  while  the  cavalry 
numbered  about  eleven  thousand  on  each  side,  and  both 
armies  had  more  cannon  than  they  could  use.1 

When  Reynolds  advanced  his  own  corps  (the  First)  and 
determined  to  hold  Gettysburg,  he  ordered  the  Eleventh 
(Howard's)  to  come  up  to  its  support.  The  country  about 
Gettysburg  is  broken  into  ridges,  mainly  parallel  and  running 
north  and  south.  On  the  first  ridge  west  of  the  village 
stood  a  theological  seminary,  which  gave  it  the  name  of  Semi- 
nary Ridge.  Between  this  and  the  next  is  a  small  stream 
called  Willoughby  Run,  and  here  the  first  day's  battle  was 
fought.  Buford  held  the  ridges  till  the  infantry  arrived, 
climbing  into  the  belfry  of  the  seminary  and  looking  anx- 
iously for  their  coming.  The  Confederates  were  advancing 
by  two  roads  that  met  in  a  point  at  the  edge  of  the  village, 
and  Reynolds  disposed  his  troops,  as  fast  as  they  arrived,  so 
as  to  dispute  the  passage  on  both  roads.  The  key-point  was 
a  piece  of  high  ground,  partly  covered  with  woods,  between 
the  roads,  and  the  advance  of  both  sides  rushed  for  it.     Here 


44°  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1863 

General  Reynolds,  going  forward  to  survey  the  ground,  was 
shot  by  a  sharpshooter  and  fell  dead.  He  was  one  of  the 
ablest  corps  commanders  that  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  ever 
had.  The  command  devolved  upon  General  Abner  Double- 
day.  The  Confederate  force  contending  for  possession  of 
the  woods  was  Archer's  brigade ;  the  National  was  Mere- 
dith's Iron  Brigade.  Archer's  men  had  been  told  that  they 
would  meet  nothing  but  Pennsylvania  militia,  which  they 
expected  to  brush  out  of  the  way  with  little  trouble ;  but 
when  they  saw  the  Iron  Brigade,  some  of  them  were  heard 

saying  :   "  'Taint  no  militia ;  there  are  the black-hatted 

fellows  again  ;  it's  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  !  "  The  result 
here  was  that  Meredith's  men  not  only  secured  the  woods, 
but  captured  General  Archer  and  a  large  part  of  his  brigade, 
and  then  advanced  to  the  ridge  west  of  the  run. 

On  the  right  of  the  line  there  had  been  bloody  fighting, 
with  unsatisfactory  results,  owing  to  the  careless  posting  of 
regiments  and  a  want  of  concert  in  action.  Two  National 
regiments  were  driven  from  the  field  and  a  gun  was  lost, 
while  on  the  other  hand  a  Confederate  force  was  driven  into 
a  railroad  cut  for  shelter,  and  then  subjected  to  an  enfilading 
fire  through  the  cut,  so  that  a  large  portion  was  captured 
and  the  remainder  dispersed. 

Whether  any  commander  on  either  side  intended  to  bring 
on  a  battle  at  this  point,  is  doubtful.  But  both  sides  were 
rapidly  and  heavily  reenforced,  and  both  fought  with  deter- 
mination. The  struggle  for  the  Chambersburg  road  was 
obstinate,  especially  after  the  Confederates  had  planted  sev- 
eral guns  to  sweep  it.  "We  have  come  to  stay,"  said  Roy 
Stone's  brigade,  as  they  came  into  line  under  the  fire  of  these 
guns  to  support  a  battery  of  their  own,  and  "  the  battle  after- 
ward became  so  severe  that  the  greater  portion  did  stay,"  says 
General  Doubleday.  A  division  of  Ewell's  corps  soon  arrived 
from  Carlisle,  wheeled  into  position,  and  struck  the  right  of  the 
National  line.  Robinson's  division,  resting  on  Seminary  Ridge, 
was  promptly  brought  forward  to  meet  this  new  peril,  and  was 
so  skilfully  handled  that  it  presently  captured  three  North 
Carolina  regiments. 

General  Oliver  O.  Howard,  being  the  ranking  officer,  as- 
sumed command  when  he  arrived  on  this  part  of  the  field ; 


1863]  BATTLE    OF   GETTYSBURG  441 

and  when  his  own  corps  (the  Eleventh)  came  up,  about  one 
o'clock,  he  placed  it  in  position  on  the  right,  prolonging  the 
line  of  battle  far  around  to  the  north  of  the  town.  This  great 
extension  made  it  weak  at  many  points ;  and  as  fresh  divi- 
sions of  Confederate  troops  were  constantly  arriving,  under 
Lee's  general  order  to  concentrate  on  the  town,  they  finally 
became  powerful  enough  to  break  through  the  center,  rolling 
back  the  right  flank  of  the  First  Corps  and  the  left  of  the 
Eleventh,  and  throwing  into  confusion  everything  except  the 
left  of  the  First  Corps,  which  retired  in  good  order,  protecting 
artillery  and  ambulances.  Of  the  fugitives  that  swarmed 
through  the  town,  about  five  thousand  were  made  prisoners. 
But  this  had  been  effected  only  at  heavy  cost  to  the  Confed- 
erates. At  one  point  Iverson's  Georgia  brigade  had  rushed 
up  to  a  stone  fence  behind  which  Baxter's  brigade  was  shel- 
tered, when  Baxter's  men  suddenly  rose  and  delivered  a  vol- 
ley that  struck  down  five  hundred  of  Iverson's  in  an  instant, 
while  the  remainder,  who  were  subjected  also  to  a  cross- 
fire, immediately  surrendered  —  all  but  one  regiment,  which 
escaped  by  raising  a  white  flag. 

In  the  midst  of  the  confusion,  General  Winfield  S.  Han- 
cock arrived,  under  orders  from  General  Meade  to  supersede 
Howard  in  the  command  of  that  wing  of  the  army.  He  had 
been  instructed  also  to  choose  a  position  for  the  army  to 
meet  the  great  shock  of  battle,  if  he  should  find  a  better  one 
than  the  line  of  Pipe  Creek.  Hancock's  first  duty  was  to 
rally  the  fugitives  and  restore  order  and  confidence.  Stein- 
wehr's  division  was  in  reserve  on  Cemetery  Ridge,  and 
Buford's  cavalry  was  on  the  plain  between  the  town  and  the 
ridge ;  and  with  these  standing  fast  he  stopped  the  retreat 
and  rapidly  formed  a  line  along  that  crest. 

The  ridge  begins  in  Round  Top,  a  high,  rocky  hill ;  next 
north  of  this  is  Little  Round  Top,  smaller  but  still  bold  and 
rugged ;  and  thence  it  is  continued  at  a  less  elevation,  with 
gentler  slopes,  northward  within  half  a  mile  of  the  town, 
where  it  curves  around  to  the  east  and  ends  at  Rock  Creek. 
The  whole  length  is  about  three  miles.  Seminary  Ridge  is  a 
mile  west  of  this,  and  nearly  parallel  with  its  central  portion. 
Hancock  without  hesitation  chose  this  line,  placed  all  the 
available  troops  in  position,  and  then  hurried  back  to  head- 


442  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1863 

quarters  at  Taneytown.  Meade  at  once  accepted  his  plan, 
and  sent  forward  the  remaining  corps.  The  Third  Corps, 
commanded  by  General  Sickles,  being  already  on  the  march, 
arrived  at  sunset.  The  Second  (Hancock's)  marched  thir- 
teen miles  and  went  into  position.  The  Fifth  (Sykes's)  was 
twenty-three  miles  away,  but  marched  all  night  and  arrived 
in  the  morning.  The  Sixth  (Sedgwick's)  was  thirty-six  miles 
away,  but  was  put  in  motion  at  once.  At  the  same  time  Lee 
was  urging  the  various  divisions  of  his  army  to  make  the 
concentration  as  rapidly  as  possible,  not  wishing  to  attack 
the  heights  till  his  forces  were  all  up. 

It  is  said  by  General  Longstreet  that  Lee  had  promised  his 
corps  commanders  not  to  fight  a  battle  during  this  expedition, 
unless  he  could  take  a  position  and  stand  on  the  defensive ; 
but  the  excitement  and  confidence  of  his  soldiers,  who  felt 
themselves  invincible,  compelled  him.  While  he  was  waiting 
for  his  divisions  to  arrive,  forming  his  lines  and  perfect- 
ing a  plan  of  attack,  Sedgwick's  corps  arrived  on  the  other 
side,  and  the  National  troops  were  busy  constructing  rude 
breastworks  on  some  portions  of  their  line. 

Between  the  two  great  ridges  there  is  another  ridge,  situ- 
ated somewhat  like  the  diagonal  portion  of  a  capital  N.  The 
order  of  the  corps,  beginning  at  the  right,  was  this:  Slocum's, 
Howard's,  Hancock's,  Sickles' s,  with  Sykes's  in  reserve  on 
the  left  and  Sedgwick's  on  the  right.  Sickles,  thinking  to 
occupy  more  advantageous  ground,  instead  of  remaining  in 
line,  advanced  to  the  diagonal  ridge,  and  on  this  hinged  the 
whole  battle  of  the  second  day.  For  there  was  nothing  on 
which  to  rest  his  left  flank,  and  he  was  obliged  to  "  refuse  " 
it — turn  it  sharply  back  toward  Round  Top.  This  presented 
a  salient  angle  (always  a  weak  point)  to  the  enemy ;  and 
here,  when  the  action  opened  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon, 
the  blow  fell.  The  angle  was  at  a  peach  orchard,  and  the 
refused  line  stretched  back  through  a  wheat-field,  General 
Birney's  division  occupying  this  ground,  while  the  right  of 
Sickles's  line  was  held  by  Humphreys. 

Longstreet's  men  attacked  the  salient  vigorously,  and  his 
extreme  right,  composed  of  Hood's  division,  stretched  out 
toward  Little  Round  Top,  where  it  narrowly  missed  winning 
a  position  that  would  have  enabled  it  to  enfilade  the  whole 


1863]  BATTLE   OF   GETTYSBURG  443 

National  line.  Little  Round  Top  had  been  occupied  only  by- 
signal  men,  when  General  Warren  saw  the  danger,  detached 
Vincent's  brigade  from  a  division  that  was  going  out  to  reen- 
force  Sickles,  and  ordered  it  to  occupy  the  hill  at  once.  One 
regiment  of  Weed's  brigade  (the  140th  New  York)  also  went 
up,  dragging  and  lifting  the  guns  of  Hazlett's  battery  up  the 
rocky  slope ;  and  the  whole  brigade  soon  followed.  They 
were  just  in  time  to  meet  the  advance  of  Hood's  Texans  and 
engage  in  one  of  the  bloodiest  conflicts  of  the  war.  At  length 
the  Texans  were  hurled  back,  and  the  position  was  secured ; 
but  dead  or  wounded  soldiers,  in  blue  and  in  gray,  lay 
everywhere  among  the  rocks.  General  Weed  was  mortally 
wounded,  General  Vincent  was  killed,  Colonel  Patrick  H. 
O'Rorke,  of  the  140th,  a  recent  graduate  of  West  Point,  of 
brilliant  promise,  was  shot  dead  at  the  head  of  his  men,  and 
Lieutenant  Charles  E.  Hazlett  was  killed  as  he  leaned  over 
General  Weed  to  catch  his  last  words.  "  I  would  rather  die 
here,"  said  Weed,  "than  that  the  rebels  should  gain  an  inch 
of  this  ground !  "  Hood's  men  made  one  more  attempt,  by 
creeping  up  the  ravine  between  the  two  Round  Tops,  but 
were  repelled  by  a  bayonet  charge,  executed  by  Chamber- 
lain's 20th  Maine  Regiment,  and  five  hundred  of  them,  with 
seventeen  officers,  were  made  prisoners. 

Meanwhile  terrific  fighting  was  going  on  at  the  salient  in 
the  peach  orchard.  Several  batteries  were  in  play  on  both 
sides,  and  made  destructive  work;  a  single  shell  from  one  of 
the  National  guns  killed  or  wounded  thirty  men  in  a  com- 
pany of  thirty-seven.  Here  General  Zook  was  killed,  Colonel 
Cross  was  killed,  General  Sickles  lost  a  leg,  and  the  Confed- 
erate General  Barksdale  was  mortally  wounded  and  died  a 
prisoner.  There  were  repeated  charges  and  counter-charges, 
and  numerous  bloody  incidents ;  for  Sickles  was  constantly 
reenforced,  and  Lee,  being  under  the  impression  that  this  was 
the  flank  of  the  main  line,  kept  hammering  at  it  till  his  men 
finally  possessed  the  peach  orchard,  advanced  their  lines,  as- 
sailed the  left  flank  of  Humphreys,  and  finally  drove  back 
the  National  line,  only  to  find  that  they  had  forced  it  into  its 
true  position,  from  which  they  could  not  dislodge  it  by  any 
direct  attack,  while  the  guns  and  troops  that  now  crowned 
the  two  Round  Tops  showed  any  flank  movement  to  be  impos- 


444  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1863 

sible.  About  sunset  Ewell's  corps  assailed  the  Union  right, 
and  at  heavy  cost  gained  a  portion  of  the  works  near  Rock 
Creek. 

One  of  the  most  dramatic  incidents  of  this  day  was  a 
charge  on  Cemetery  Hill  by  two  Confederate  brigades,  led 
by  an  organization  known  as  the  Louisiana  Tigers.  It  was 
made  just  at  dusk,  and  the  charging  column  immediately 
became  a  target  for  the  batteries  of  Wiedrick,  Stevens,  and 
Ricketts,  which  fired  grape  and  canister,  each  gun  making 
four  discharges  a  minute.  But  the  Tigers  had  the  reputa- 
tion of  never  having  failed  in  a  charge,  and  in  spite  of  the 
frightful  gaps  made  by  the  artillery  and  by  volleys  of  mus- 
ketry, they  kept  on  till  they  reached  the  guns  and  made  a 
hand-to-hand  fight  for  them.  Friend  and  foe  were  fast  ber 
coming  mingled  when  Carroll's  brigade  came  to  the  rescue 
of  the  guns,  and  the  remnants  of  the  Confederate  column  fled 
down  the  hill  in  the  gathering  darkness,  hastened  by  a  double- 
shotted  fire  from  Ricketts's  battery.  Of  the  seventeen  hun- 
dred Tigers,  twelve  hundred  had  been  struck  down,  and  that 
famous  organization  never  was  heard  of  again. 

While  the  actions  of  the  first  two  days  were  complicated, 
that  of  the  third  was  extremely  simple.  Lee  had  tried  both 
flanks,  and  failed.  He  now  determined  to  attempt  piercing 
the  center  of  Meade's  line.  Longstreet,  wiser  than  his  chief, 
protested,  but  in  vain.  On  the  other  hand,  Meade  had  held 
a  council  of  war  the  night  before,  and  in  accordance  with  the 
vote  of  his  corps  commanders  determined  to  stay  where  he 
was  and  fight  it  out.  Lee's  first  intended  movement  was  to 
push  the  success  gained  at  the  close  of  the  second  day  by  Ewell 
on  the  National  right ;  but  Meade  anticipated  him,  attacking 
early  in  the  morning  and  driving  Ewell  out  of  his  works. 
In  preparation  for  a  grand  charge,  Lee  placed  more  than  one 
hundred  guns  in  position  on  Seminary  Ridge,  converging 
their  fire  on  the  left  center  of  Meade's  line,  where  he  intended 
to  send  his  storming  column.  Eighty  guns  (all  there  was 
room  for)  were  placed  in  position  on  Cemetery  Ridge  to  reply, 
and  at  one  o'clock  the  firing  began.  This  was  one  of  the 
most  terrific  artillery  duels  ever  witnessed.  There  was  a 
continuous  and  deafening  roar,  which  was  heard  forty  miles 
away.     The    shot    and    shells    plowed   up  the  ground,  shat- 


1863]  BATTLE   OF   GETTYSBURG  445 

tered  gravestones  in  the  cemetery  and  sent  their  fragments 
flying  among  the  troops,  exploded  caissons,  and  dismounted 
guns.  A  house  used  for  Meade's  headquarters,  in  the  rear 
of  the  line,  was  completely  riddled.  Many  artillerists  and 
horses  were  killed ;  but  the  casualties  among  the  infantry 
were  not  numerous,  for  the  men  lay  flat  upon  the  ground, 
taking  advantage  of  every  shelter,  and  waited  for  the  more 
serious  work  that  all  knew  was  to  follow.  At  the  end  of  two 
hours  General  Henry  J.  Hunt,  Meade's  chief  of  artillery, 
ordered  the  firing  to  cease,  both  to  cool  the  guns  and  to  save 
the  ammunition  for  use  in  repelling  the  infantry  charge. 
Lee  supposed  that  his  object  —  which  was  to  demoralize  his 
enemy  and  cause  him  to  exhaust  his  artillery  —  had  been 
effected.  Fourteen  thousand  of  his  best  troops  —  including 
Pickett's  division,  which  had  not  arrived  in  time  for  the  pre- 
vious day's  fighting  —  now  came  out  of  the  woods,  formed  in 
heavy  columns,  and  moved  forward  steadily  to  the  charge. 
Instantly  the  National  guns  reopened  fire,  and  the  Confed- 
erate ranks  were  plowed  through  and  through ;  but  the 
gaps  were  closed  up,  and  the  columns  did  not  halt.  There 
was  a  mile  of  open  ground  for  them  to  traverse,  and  every 
step  was  taken  under  heavy  fire.  As  they  drew  nearer,  the 
batteries  used  grape  and  canister,  and  an  infantry  force  posted 
in  advance  of  the  main  line  rose  to  its  feet  and  fired  volleys 
of  musketry  into  the  right  flank.  Now  the  columns  began 
visibly  to  break  up  and  melt  away ;  and  the  left  wing  of  the 
force  changed  its  direction  somewhat,  so  that  it  parted  from 
the  right,  making  an  interval  and  exposing  a  new  flank,  of 
which  the  National  troops  promptly  took  advantage.  But 
Pickett's  diminishing  ranks  pushed  on,  till  they  passed  over 
the  outer  lines,  fought  hand-to-hand  at  the  main  line,  and 
even  leaped  the  breastworks  and  thought  to  capture  the  bat- 
teries. The  point  where  they  penetrated  was  marked  by  a 
clump  of  small  trees  on  the  edge  of  the  hill,  at  that  portion 
of  the  line  held  by  the  brigade  of  General  Alexander  S.  Webb, 
who  was  wounded;  but  his  men  stood  firm  against  the  shock, 
and,  from  the  eagerness  of  all  to  join  in  the  contest,  men 
rushed  from  every  side  to  the  point  assailed,  mixing  up  all 
commands,  but  making  a  front  that  no  such  remnant  as  Pick- 
ett's could  break.     General  Lewis  A.  Armistead,  who  led  the 


446  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1863 

charge  and  leaped  over  the  wall,  was  shot  down  as  he  laid 
his  hand  on  a  gun,  and  his  surviving  soldiers  surrendered 
themselves.  On  the  slope  of  the  hill  many  of  the  assailants 
had  thrown  themselves  upon  the  ground  and  held  up  their 
hands  for  quarter ;  and  an  immediate  sally  from  the  National 
lines  brought  in  a  large  number  of  prisoners  and  battle-flags. 
Of  that  magnificent  column  which  had  been  launched  out  so 
proudly,  only  a  broken  fragment  ever  returned.  Nearly 
every  officer  in  it,  except  Pickett,  had  been  either  killed  or 
wounded.  Armistead,  a  prisoner  and  dying,  said  to  an  officer 
who  was  bending  over  him,  "Tell  Hancock  I  have  wronged 
him  and  have  wronged  my  country."  He  had  been  opposed 
to  secession,  but  the  pressure  of  his  friends  and  relatives  had 
at  length  forced  him  into  the  service.  Hancock  had  been 
wounded  and  borne  from  the  field,  and  among  the  other 
wounded  on  the  National  side  were  Generals  Doubleday, 
Gibbon,  Warren,  Butterfield,  Stannard,  Barnes,  and  Brooke. 
General  Farnsworth  was  killed,  and  General  Gabriel  R.  Paul 
lost  both  eyes.  Among  the  killed  on  the  Confederate  side, 
besides  those  already  mentioned,  were  Generals  Garnett, 
Pender,  and  Semmes;  and  among  the  wounded,  Generals 
Hampton,  Jenkins,  Kemper,  Scales,  J.  M.  Jones,  and  G.  T. 
Anderson. 

While  this  movement  was  in  progress,  Kilpatrick  with  his 
cavalry  rode  round  the  mountain  and  attempted  to  pass  the 
Confederate  right  and  capture  the  trains,  while  Stuart  with 
his  cavalry  made  a  simultaneous  attempt  on  the  National 
right.  Each  had  a  bloody  fight,  but  neither  was  successful. 
This  closed  the  battle.  Hancock  urged  that  a  great  return 
charge  should  be  made  immediately  with  Sedgwick's  corps, 
which  had  not  participated,  and  Lee  expected  such  a  move- 
ment as  a  matter  of  course.     But  it  was  not  done. 

That  night  Lee  made  preparations  for  retreat,  and  the 
next  day  —  which  was  the  4th  of  July  —  the  retreat  was 
begun.  General  Imboden,  who  conducted  the  trains  and  the 
ambulances,  describes  it  as  one  of  the  most  pitiful  and  heart- 
rending scenes  ever  witnessed.  A  heavy  storm  had  come  up, 
the  roads  were  in  bad  condition,  few  of  the  wounded  had  been 
properly  cared  for,  and  as  they  were  jolted  along  in  agony 
they  were  groaning,  cursing,  babbling  of  their  homes,  and 


PICK UTTS  CHARGE  AT  GETTYSBURG. 
Photogravure  from  a  painting  by  Philipoteaux. 


1863]  BATTLE   OF   GETTYSBURG  447 

calling  upon  their  friends  to  kill  them  and  put  them  out  of 
misery.  But  there  could  be  no  halt,  for  the  Potomac  was 
rising,  and  an  attack  was  hourly  expected  from  the  enemy  in 
the  rear. 

Meade,  however,  did  not  pursue  for  several  days,  and  then 
to  no  purpose,  so  that  Lee's  crippled  army  escaped  into 
Virginia ;  but  it  was  disabled  from  ever  doing  anything  more 
than  prolonging  the  contest.  Gettysburg  was  essentially  the 
Waterloo  of  the  war,  and  there  is  a  striking  parallel  in  the 
losses.  The  numbers  engaged  were  very  nearly  the  same  in 
the  one  battle  as  in  the  other.  At  Waterloo  the  victors  lost 
twenty-three  thousand,  one  hundred  and  eighty-five  men, 
and  the  vanquished,  in  round  numbers,  thirty  thousand.  At 
Gettysburg  the  National  loss  was  twenty-three  thousand,  one 
hundred  and  ninety  —  killed,  wounded,  and  missing.  The 
Confederate  losses  were  never  officially  reported,  but  esti- 
mates place  them  at  nearly  thirty  thousand.  Lee  left  seven 
thousand  of  his  wounded  among  the  unburied  dead,  and 
twenty-seven  thousand  muskets  were  picked  up  on  the  field. 
That  little  umbrella-shaped  clump  of  trees  in  the  center  of 
the  National  line,  toward  which  Pickett's  charge  was  directed, 
is  pointed  out  as  the  spot  where  the  rebellion  touched  high- 
water  mark.  When  Lee's  shattered  army  crawled  back  into 
Virginia,  it  was  certain  that,  however  it  might  be  strength- 
ened by  weakening  the  Confederate  defenses  at  other  points, 
and  by  taking  in  what  little  material  for  soldiers  could  still 
be  gleaned  after  the  rigid  conscription  laws,  it  would  invade 
no  more.  As  it  was  in  a  country  full  of  natural  lines  of 
defense,  which  had  been  strengthened  with  elaborate  fortifi- 
cations, and  with  which  it  had  become  thoroughly  familiar,  it 
was  still  possible  for  it  to  maintain  a  sturdy  defensive  atti- 
tude ;  but  its  destruction  was  only  a  question  of  time. 

The  most  important  military  operations  at  the  West  were 
those  directed  against  Vicksburg  on  the  Mississippi.  At  this 
point  the  line  of  transportation  by  which  the  Confederates 
drew  their  supplies  from  Texas  and  northern  Louisiana  crossed 
the  great  river,  and  this  and  Port  Hudson  were  the  last  places 
on  the  stream  that  remained  under  their  control.  Its  high 
bluffs  were  crowned  with  guns  that  could  throw  a  plunging 
fire  upon  any  vessel  that  attempted  to  pass,  and  its  rear  was 


448  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1863 

heavily  fortified  as  well.  After  Grant  had  found  it  impreg- 
nable from  the  north,  he  boldly  transported  his  army  across 
the  Mississippi,  marched  to  Grand  Gulf,  about  thirty  miles 
below  the  city,  crossed  to  the  eastern  bank,  and  then  marched 
northeast  to  Raymond  and  Jackson,  and  thence  westward  to 
Vicksburg,  driving  before  him  the  Confederate  army  under 
Pemberton.  There  were  battles  at  Raymond,  Jackson,  Cham- 
pion's Hill,  and  the  crossing  of  the  Big  Black,  in  all  of  which 
the  Confederates  were  defeated,  and  they  were  then  shut  up 
in  the  city,  which  Grant  closely  beleaguered.  On  the  forty- 
seventh  day  of  the  siege  (July  4,  1863),  the  place  was  sur- 
rendered unconditionally,  with  its  entire  garrison  of  thirty- 
one  thousand,  six  hundred  men.  Five  days  later,  Port 
Hudson,  besieged  by  a  force  of  twelve  thousand  men  under 
General  Banks  and  the  fleet  under  Farragut,  was  also  sur- 
rendered. 

Gettysburg  on  the  first  three  days  of  July,  and  Vicksburg 
on  the  4th,  formed  one  great  and  overwhelming  victory.  Its 
importance  was  at  once  recognized  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Atlantic,  where  it  destroyed  the  last  chance  of  interference 
by  any  European  power,  and  put  an  end  to  the  market  for 
Confederate  bonds.  The  doom  of  what  Mr.  Gladstone  had 
hastened  to  eulogize  as  "  a  nation  created  in  a  day  "  was  now 
sealed,  and  it  only  remained  for  the  citizens  to  reelect  Presi- 
dent Lincoln,  thus  shutting  off  all  prospect  of  relief  through 
political  means,  and  for  the  National  armies  to  hammer  away 
till  the  final  catastrophe  should  overtake  the  institution  of 
slavery  and  its  valorous  but  misguided  defenders.  The  the- 
ory of  State  sovereignty  went  down  with  it,  while  the  princi- 
ple of  State  rights  under  the  Constitution  remained  intact,  as 
all  would  have  it,  and  probably  will  remain  forever. 

R.J. 

1  Note.  —  Various  figures  and  estimates  are  given  as  representing  the 
strength  of  the  two  armies,  some  of  which  take  account  of  detachments 
absent  on  special  duty,  and  some  do  not.  The  figures  here  given  denote 
very  nearly  the  forces  actually  available  for  the  battle. 


1870]  BATTLE   OF   SEDAN  449 


CHAPTER   XVII 

The  Battle  of  Sedan,  1870 

THE  principles  of  the  French  Revolution,  in  so  far  as 
they  were  imposed  on  Europe  by  the  Napoleonic  con- 
quests, were  not  lost  by  the  overthrow  of  the  Empire. 
The  personal  rule  of  kings,  hereditary  aristocracy  as  a  gov- 
erning caste,  the  power  of  the  Roman  Curia  as  an  arbiter 
between  nations,  and  the  feudal  organization  of  society,  were 
doomed  to  extinction,  where  they  had  not  already  passed 
away.  The  idea  of  popular  sovereignty,  of  the  control  of 
the  whole  people  over  the  acts  of  government  through  the 
choice  of  legislators  and  a  responsible  executive,  the  system 
embodied  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  was  still 
the  ideal  of  Europe,  though  from  the  lassitude  that  follows 
revolution  a  reaction  set  in  that  was  deadening  and  stupefy- 
ing in  proportion  to  the  exciting  whirl  of  the  revolutionary 
epoch  that  it  succeeded.  The  rapidly  growing  manufactur- 
ing class  and  the  men  of  commerce  and  the  professions  had 
long  been  a  power  in  England,  and  on  the  Continent  the  third 
estate,  having  raised  its  head,  was  not  to  be  again  reduced  to 
subjection;  nor  did  the  statesmen  who  readjusted  European 
politics  expect  to  undo  the  work  of  the  Revolution,  but  only 
to  check  the  continued  growth  of  democracy  and  effect  com- 
promises between  the  old  and  the  new.  Talleyrand  was  him- 
self a  child  of  the  Revolution.  Alexander  I.,  in  founding  the 
Holy  Alliance,  dreamed  of  imparting  liberty  and  power  to 
the  peoples,  and  began  by  granting  a  constitution  to  Poland. 
The  immediate  care  of  the  statesmen  who  took  charge  of 
the  destinies  of  Europe  after  the  exile  of  Napoleon  to  Elba 
and,  subsequently  to  Waterloo,  to  St.  Helena,  was  to  crush 
his  party  and  to  extirpate  his  influence  in  all  countries ;  to 
turn  his  brothers  and  his  marshals  out  of  the  thrones  which 
they  filled  ingloriously  as  representatives  of  his  incongruous 


45°  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1870 

and  foolish  ambition  to  found  a  dynasty  and  as  satraps  of  his 
military  empire.  Metternich,  Talleyrand,  Nesselrode,  Harden- 
berg,  and  Castlereagh,  while  haggling  as  diplomatists  for  the 
gain  of  their  respective  governments,  rearranged  the  map  of 
Europe  in  accordance  with  what  they  called  the  principle  of 
legitimacy,  which  was  not  a  principle,  but  simply  a  diplo- 
matic formula,  a  fiction,  like  the  later  concert  of  Europe. 
Napoleon's  creatures  were  driven  from  their  thrones,  his 
allies  among  the  legitimate  sovereigns  had  their  frontiers 
reduced  and  their  power  curtailed,  and  reigning  families  that 
he  had  dethroned  were  restored  to  sovereignty,  to  live  as 
best  they  could  with  their  people  and  accommodate  them- 
selves to  the  new  order  of  things.  The  old  boundaries,  the 
old  commonwealths,  were  not  and  could  not  be  restored. 
Not  the  sovereigns,  but  an  Areopagus  of  politicians,  disposed 
of  their  fortunes ;  and  if  they  afterwards  sought  to  revive  the 
divine  right  of  kings,  the  political  power  of  the  Church  and 
the  feudal  nobility,  the  idea  of  theocracy,  or  the  principles  of 
absolutism,  they  invited  their  fate.  The  Bourbons  who  could 
not  forget  the  old  nor  learn  the  new  order  were  again  cast 
from  their  thrones,  and  some  of  the  politicians  who  had 
restored  them  had  a  hand  also  in  the  readjustment  of  power. 
In  the  rearrangement  of  boundaries  that  followed  the 
downfall  of  the  French  empire,  England  and  Prussia,  the 
nations  that  had  finally  won  the  victory  over  the  military 
dictator  of  Europe,  were  rewarded  with  accessions  of  power 
and  dominion  commensurate  with  the  military  strength  they 
had  developed.  Russia  obtained  a  more  powerful  voice  in 
the  councils  of  Europe.  Austria,  no  longer  at  the  head  of 
the  Holy  Roman  empire,  was  erected  into  a  new  and  power- 
ful military  empire.  Spain  sank  to  the  position  of  a  second- 
rate  power.  Holland  was  stripped  of  a  great  part  of  her 
ultra-marine  possessions,  which  went  to  enrich  Great  Britain, 
now  established  by  her  naval  power,  by  her  coal  and  her 
iron,  by  her  mercantile  enterprise  and  manufacturing  indus- 
try, as  the  leading  commercial  nation.  The  repartition  of 
Europe  was  as  arbitrary,  as  artificial,  as  revolutionary,  as  the 
empire  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte.  Austria  took  Lombardy  and 
Venetia.  Poland  went  to  Russia.  Saxony  was  curtailed  to 
enlarge  Prussia,  and  the  latter,  giving  up  a  great  part  of  her 


1870]  BATTLE   OF   SEDAN  45 1 

Slavonic  possessions  to  obtain  weight  and  aggrandizement  as 
a  German  state,  took  the  Rhenish  provinces  bordering  upon 
France,  a  change  pregnant  of  events. 

One  outcome  of  the  French  Revolution  and  the  Napoleonic 
era  was  the  organized,  secular  civil  state  —  a  political  Roman 
and  Greek  Renaissance  that  philosophers  of  various  countries 
had  been  preparing  for  centuries.  Individual  liberty  and 
equality  before  the  law  were  ideals  held  in  view,  though  in 
reality  the  order  controlling  industrial  and  commercial  capital 
molded  the  laws  in  their  class  interest ;  yet,  while  petty  re- 
strictions or  personal  liberty  were  abolished,  the  sphere  of  law 
was  really  enlarged,  the  system  of  government,  of  impersonal 
government,  was  consolidated,  the  subordination  of  the  indi- 
vidual to  the  state  became  something  like  that  in  ancient 
Athens  and  Rome.  The  central  state  thus  evolved  was 
based  on  the  idea  of  a  social  compact.  Ethnic  unity,  a  com- 
mon language,  uniform  legal  and  social  institutions,  religious 
conformity,  national  history  —  all  were  disregarded  in  the  new 
territorial  divisions,  founded  partly  on  the  dynastic  conquests 
and  inheritances  of  the  anterevolutionary  age,  partly  on  the 
Napoleonic  distribution,  and  chiefly  on  the  greed  and  jealousy 
of  Napoleon's  conquerors.  But  the  consolidated  power  of  the 
central  government  and  the  development  of  parliamentary 
rule  tended  to  knit  the  people  of  each  state  together. 

In  its  oscillation  between  the  old  regime  and  the  modern 
state,  the  pendulum  swung  back  again  about  1830.  France, 
still  the  originator  of  political  movements,  the  mother  of  ideas, 
in  that  year  cast  out  the  impracticable  Bourbons  of  the  old 
line,  and  adopted  the  constitutional  monarchy  under  Louis 
Philippe,  the  bourgeois  king.  The  expulsion  of  Charles  X. 
from  France  was  followed  by  insurrections  in  Italy,  Poland, 
and  Belgium,  and  a  movement  for  popular  government  in 
Northern  Germany.  These  phenomena  were  inspired  by  the 
desire  for  constitutional  liberty,  for  popular  rights  ;  but  joined 
with  this  was  a  new  principle  —  the  budding  spirit  of  national- 
ism. In  all  the  succeeding  period  of  repression  and  stagnation, 
when  the  Russian  autocracy,  which  had  joined  the  family  of 
European  nations  bringing  offerings  to  liberty,  afterwards 
sought  to  conform  them  to  its  own  rigid  system  of  despotism, 
when  Metternich  imposed  his  despotic  methods  and  upheld  the 


452  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1870 

principle  of  absolutism  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  Ger- 
many as  well  as  in  Italy,  these  two  ideas  of  constitutional 
liberty  and  national  unity  were  indissolubly  linked.  Every 
patriot  —  German,  Italian,  Pole,  Magyar,  or  Czech  —  who 
pleaded  or  strove  for  the  restoration  of  national  life  and  inde- 
pendence was  a  lover  of  popular  self-government  and  indi- 
vidual liberty,  and  as  such  was  treated  as  an  enemy  and  a 
disturber  by  the  Prussian  government  not  less  than  by  the 
ruling  powers  in  Austria  and  Russia. 

The  introduction  of  constitutionalism  in  France,  modeled 
after  parliamentary  government  as  long  established  in  Eng- 
land, secured  the  ascendency  of  the  third  estate  in  that 
country ;  but  in  the  military  and  bureaucratic  monarchies 
of  Central  Europe,  where  industrial  development  was  less 
advanced  and  the  feudal  aristocracy  had  not  lost  its  wealth 
or  its  privileges,  the  struggle  of  the  rising  bourgeoisie  for 
representative  institutions  was  long  and  severe.  In  1848  the 
democratic  revolution  in  Paris  gave  the  signal  for  the  towns- 
people of  Berlin,  Vienna,  and  other  capitals,  and  that  year  wit- 
nessed the  beginning  of  parliamentary  life  in  many  countries. 

The  treacherous  usurpation  of  Napoleon  III.  in  France  was 
a  symptom  of  the  reaction  that  extended  throughout  Europe. 
The  emergent  plutocracy  joined  forces  with  the  powers  of 
monarchy,  aristocracy,  and  ecclesiasticism  to  dam  back  the 
tide  of  democracy.  The  growth  and  improvement,  the 
machinery  of  government,  the  organizing  mission  of  the  mod- 
ern state  in  education,  social  conditions,  agricultural  and 
industrial  production,  the  adaptation  of  the  public  powers  to 
the  needs  and  uses  of  the  people,  went  on,  while  the  onward 
wave  of  liberalism  swept  the  nations  towards  their  goal  of 
popular  liberty,  and  went  on,  too,  when  the  refluent  wave  of 
conservative  reaction  swamped  their  immediate  hopes  and 
paralyzed  their  energies. 

There  were  latterly  on  the  Continent  of  Europe  two  main 
centers  of  historical  evolution,  two  sources  of  political  thought 
—  France  and  Germany.  The  chief  aim  of  the  French  peo- 
ple was  the  democratic  republic,  of  which  they  had  been 
twice  balked.  The  German  people  aspired  to  become  a  united 
nation  with  free  institutions.  The  desire  for  National  unity 
in  Germany,  first  awakened  in  the  war  against  Bonaparte,  was 


1870J  BATTLE   OF   SEDAN  453 

always  coupled  with  the  demand  for  constitutional  government, 
which  was  promised  by  the  princes  in  the  act  of  confedera- 
tion. While  the  National  Assembly  was  sitting  in  Frankfort 
in  1848,  the  first  hostilities  with  Denmark  over  the  Duchies 
of  Schleswig  and  Holstein  began,  and  this  brought  Prussia 
more  to  the  front ;  but  the  democratic  protagonists  of  National 
unity  opposed  the  leadership  of  Prussia,  especially  after  the 
overthrow  of  absolutism  in  Austria  and  the  triumph  of  the 
reaction  in  Prussia.  The  union  of  Lombardy  with  Italy  as 
the  result  of  the  war  of  1859  gave  a  fresh  impetus  to  the 
movement  for  a  united  Germany.  By  keeping  the  confedera- 
tion from  going  to  war  with  France  as  Austria's  ally,  Prussia 
had  gained  a  decided  lead  over  the  latter  in  the  race  for  the 
leadership  in  Germany.  Bismarck  raised  the  question  of 
Schleswig-Holstein  again,  declaring  that  only  by  blood  and 
iron,  not  by  speeches  and  majorities,  could  the  question  of 
German  unity  be  settled.  Austria  was  drawn  into  the  war 
with  Denmark  that  ended  in  the  cession  of  the  Duchies  in 
1864,  and  then  came  the  inevitable  struggle  between  Prussia 
and  Austria  for  supremacy  in  Germany.  Prussian  strategy 
won  the  victory,  and  Prussia  gained  the  Duchies,  absorbed 
Hanover,  Hesse-Cassel,  Nassau,  and  Frankfort,  and  thrust 
Austria  out  of  Germany  altogether. 

Napoleon  III.,  though  he  declared  that  the  empire  was 
embodied  peace,  must  perforce  revive  the  Napoleonic  legend, 
inflame  the  seething,  embittered,  divided  French  people  with 
visions  of  martial  glory  and  national  greatness,  and  attack 
the  great  powers  one  after  the  other  —  Russia  in  the  Crimea, 
and  Austria  in  Lombardy.  The  conflict  with  Prussia  was 
more  serious,  more  inevitable.  On  the  one  side  was  a  tyrant 
who  had  antagonized  the  best  forces  of  his  people,  his  throne 
already  trembling,  compelled  to  test  his  boasted  military 
strength,  his  chief  and  only  remaining  claim  as  a  ruler,  against 
the  rising  warlike  power  on  his  frontier.  On  the  other  was 
a  great  people,  rapidly  surmounting  the  secular  difficulties 
that  stood  in  the  way  of  union,  already  represented  by  one 
of  the  great  military  powers  of  Europe,  whose  military  spirit 
and  system  had  spread  among  the  lesser  states,  now  suddenly 
confronted  by  the  power  that  had  spoiled  and  humiliated 
them  before  and  roused  the  thirst  for  vengeance  that  inspired 


454  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1870 

the  first  breath  of  German  patriotism  —  this  hereditary  enemy 
now  threatening  to  avenge  Waterloo,  to  crush  and  humble 
them  afresh  !  This  was  the  opportunity  of  which  their  poets 
had  dreamed.  They  would  sweep  away  the  petty  barriers, 
the  jealousies  of  princes ;  they  would  present  a  solid  front 
to  the  arrogant  foe ;  they  would  merge  gloriously  into  a 
united  nation  by  avenging  Austerlitz  and  Jena.  Louis  Napo- 
leon did  not  at  first  expect  to  fight  against  united  Germany. 
He  was  a  subtle  diplomatist,  a  crafty  statesman,  one  who 
could  have  sat  worthily  at  the  table  of  the  Congress  of  Vienna, 
where  the  peoples  of  Europe  were  bartered  and  exchanged ; 
but  he  could  not  understand  the  will  and  force  of  the 
peoples,  the  German  no  better  than  his  own.  There  was  the 
vigorous,  aggressive,  expanding  young  power  that  had  sprung 
up  on  the  border  of  Germany  and  the  Slav  countries,  not  a 
nation,  not  homogeneous  in  race,  language,  or  religion,  but 
already  a  highly  organized  state  like  France,  rivaling  her  now 
in  military  resources,  swallowing  up  the  small  states  of  Ger- 
many, and  firmly  posted  on  the  Rhine.  A  war  between 
France  and  Prussia  seemed  inevitable,  so  Napoleon  craftily 
chose  the  time  to  strike  when  Prussia  had  excited  the  keenest 
jealousy  on  the  part  of  the  stronger  German  states.  If  he 
had  been  victorious  over  Russia,  with  England  for  his  ally, 
and,  in  alliance  with  Piedmont,  over  Austria,  he  would  not 
lack  allies  against  this  upstart  power.  Prussia  herself  con- 
tained discordant  elements.  There  were  the  Rhenish  lands 
and  cities,  still  regretting  the  rule  of  the  elder  Napoleon,  and 
in  the  heart  of  the  Prussian  dominion  Hanover  and  Bruns- 
wick writhing  in  the  iron  grasp  of  an  alien  ruler,  and  other 
principalities  and  free  cities  reft  of  their  liberties  or  threat- 
ened, while  the  Danes  of  Schleswig  and  the  Poles  were  filled 
with  bitter  resentment.  The  Hapsburg  monarch  might  be 
expected  to  wish  to  wipe  out  the  stain  of  Koniggratz  and  the 
ignominious  exclusion  of  his  dominions  from  Germany,  over 
which  his  ancestors  had  presided  with  the  proudest  title  in 
Christendom.  Prussia  had  wilfully  split  up  Germany,  draw- 
ing a  line  between  the  north  and  the  south,  between  the 
Protestant  and  the  Catholic  parts,  as  though  madly  bent  on 
weakening  the  national  spirit  and  giving  France  an  opportu- 
nity to  check  her  career  of  conquest  and  absorption.     It  was 


1870]  BATTLE   OF   SEDAN  455 

on  this  that  the  French  emperor  built  strong  hopes.  He  saw 
a  North  German  Confederation  in  the  place  of  the  old  German 
Confederation,  and  believed  that  France,  chief  of  Catholic 
powers,  the  acknowledged  protector  of  the  Church,  would 
have  Bavaria,  Wurtemberg,  and  Baden  on  her  side  in  a  war 
with  Prussia,  if  not  as  active  allies,  at  least  as  benevolent 
onlookers.  When  he  knew  of  the  military  alliance  between 
these  states  and  the  North  German  Confederation,  he  still 
believed  that  he  could  cope  with  Prussia,  if  not  by  means  of 
his  own  military  strength  alone,  then  by  drawing  Austria  and 
Italy  into  an  alliance  if  he  could  gain  some  successes  at  the 
start,  relying  on  the  usual  brilliant  initiative  and  dashing 
energy  of  French  arms  to  sustain  their  world-wide  prestige. 

The  French  army  was  reported  to  be  archipret ;  not  a 
gaiter  lacked  a  button.  Ready  ?  It  was  thrice  ready,  de- 
clared Marshal  Lebceuf,  the  minister  of  war.  The  ques- 
tion of  the  Spanish  succession  was  the  pretext  for  declaring 
war  against  Prussia.  The  Spanish  political  generals  had 
decided  to  present  to  the  Cortes  the  name  of  a  mediatized 
German  prince,  who  was  a  kinsman  of  the  Prussian  king, 
Prince  Leopold  of  Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen,  as  their  candi- 
date for  the  vacant  Spanish  throne.  The  interests  and  the 
honor  of  France  were  declared  to  be  imperiled  by  his  candi- 
dature, and  when,  through  the  mediation  of  England,  Prince 
Leopold  withdrew  his  name,  still  some  satisfaction  was  due 
from  the  king  of  Prussia,  who,  as  head  of  the  family,  had 
given  his  consent.  He  should  send  a  letter  of  apology  to 
the  Emperor  Napoleon  and,  at  all  events,  lay  his  royal  com- 
mand upon  Prince  Leopold  not  to  resume  his  candidature  at 
any  future  time.  Count  Bismarck  intimated  that  France 
owed  reparation  to  the  wounded  feelings  of  Germany  and, 
if  confidence  was  to  be  restored,  must  give  a  guarantee 
against  a  repetition  of  such  attacks  on  her  tranquillity. 
While  the  British  government  was  endeavoring  to  prevent  a 
rupture,  M.  Benedetti,  French  ambassador  to  Prussia, 
sought  out  King  William  at  Ems,  and  requested  that  he 
give  a  distinct  assurance  that  he  would  never  again  give  his 
consent  to  the  candidature  of  the  Hohenzollern  prince  if  it 
should  be  revived.  The  French  minister  urged  the  point 
repeatedly,  and  later  in  the  day    sought   another   audience, 


456  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1870 

but  was  informed  that  the  king  could  give  no  other  answer 
than  the  one  he  had  already  given,  and  that  henceforth 
negotiations  must  proceed  regularly  through  his  ministers. 
On  the  following  day,  after  M.  Benedetti  had  taken  informal 
leave  of  the  king,  the  Berlin  newspapers  published  a  para- 
graph announcing  that  after  the  renunciation  of  Prince 
Leopold  had  been  officially  communicated  to  the  French 
government  the  French  ambassador  had  further  demanded 
certain  engagements  of  the  king,  and  that  "  His  Majesty 
thereupon  declined  to  receive  the  French  ambassador  again, 
and  had  told  him,  by  the  adjutant  in  attendance,  that  His 
Majesty  had  nothing  further  to  communicate  to  the  ambas- 
sador." This  communication  to  the  press  was  declared  to  be 
ground  for  war  by  the  Due  de  Grammont,  Napoleon's  minister 
of  foreign  affairs,  who  told  Lord  Lyons,  the  English  am- 
bassador to  France,  that  the  Prussian  government,  by  declar- 
ing to  the  public  that  the  king  had  affronted  the  French 
ambassador,  had  deliberately  insulted  France,  and  by  the 
French  prime  minister,  Emile  Ollivier,  who  announced  in 
the  Corps  Legislatif  that  the  government  had  called  out  the 
reserves  and  was  prepared  to  maintain  the  proffered  war  and 
guard  the  interest,  the  security,  and  the  honor  of  France. 
Napoleon  III.  and  his  ministers,  though  but  ill-informed  of 
the  military  resources  of  Germany,  —  for  their  successors 
found  the  confidential  communications  of  the  military  attach^ 
at  Berlin,  long  afterwards,  reposing  in  the  archives  of  the  war- 
office  with  seals  unbroken,  —  yet  knew  Prussia's  army  to  be  as 
formidable  as  the  French  and  greatly  superior  in  numbers. 
They  did  not  count,  however,  on  the  unanimity,  the  ardor, 
the  active  patriotism  in  Germany,  that  would  bring  the  whole 
army  of  all  the  German  states  at  once  into  the  field.  The 
emperor  knew  that  Prussia  could  call  out  within  a  short  time 
900,000  men,  and  could  expect  200,000  more  from  the  South 
German  states,  while  his  own  total  force  was  600,000,  of 
which  he  counted  on  only  the  half,  300,000  men,  as  effective. 
He  made  a  deduction  of  a  full  half,  too,  from  the  nominal 
German  fighting  force,  which  left  550,000  men  to  confront 
his  300,000.  To  compensate  for  his  numerical  inferiority, 
his  plan  required  him  to  cross  the  Rhine  by  a  rapid  move- 
ment and  separate  South  Germany  from  the  North  German 


1870]  BATTLE   OF   SEDAN  457 

Confederation,  securing,  perhaps,  the  inaction  of  the  South 
German  forces  and  probably  attracting,  by  the  iclat  of  early 
victories,  Austria  and  Italy  as  allies.  His  plan,  which  he 
worked  out  with  the  aid  of  Marshal  MacMahon  and  confided 
to  Marshal  Lebceuf,  was  to  mass  100,000  men  at  Strasburg, 
and  1 50,000  at  Metz,  and  hold  50,000  in  reserve  in  the  camp 
at  Chalons  ;  unite  the  two  armies,  whose  concentration  on  the 
Rhine  and  the  Saar,  respectively,  would  give  no  indication  to 
the  enemy  whether  he  intended  to  break  into  Baden  or  into 
the  Rhine  provinces ;  cross  the  Rhine  at  Maxau,  midway 
between  the  fortresses  of  Germersheim  and  Rastatt,  and, 
having  forced  the  South  German  states  to  observe  neutrality, 
hurry  forward  to  meet  the  Prussian  troops  in  detail,  if 
possible,  before  all  the  formations  could  be  brought  to  the 
front.  Since  the  Prussian  army  was  more  numerous  than 
the  French,  it  was  necessary  to  strike  suddenly  and  unexpect- 
edly, to  gain  an  early  success,  and  thus  deter  the  wavering, 
dismay  the  half-hearted,  and  allow  the  dissensions  and  jeal- 
ousies that  had  never  been  wanting  between  German  states 
and  princes  to  work  for  France.  An  important  feature  of  the 
French  plan  of  campaign  was  to  use  the  strong  navy,  which 
the  Germans  had  no  force  to  oppose,  to  land  a  force  on  the 
North  Sea  coast,  and  draw  thither  a  part  of  the  Prussian 
troops,  while  the  army  of  the  Rhine,  300,000  strong,  under 
the  immediate  command  of  the  emperor,  should  swiftly  cross 
the  Rhine  below  Strasburg,  thus  cutting  off  the  South  Ger- 
man army  from  the  North  Germans,  and  assail  in  succession 
the  fortresses  of  the  Rhine,  if  the  main  body  of  the  Prussian 
army  reached  that  point  in  time  to  meet  the  French  attack. 

The  announcement  that  the  reserves  were  called  out  was 
received  with  great  enthusiasm.  Students  and  the  Paris  mob 
rushed  through  the  boulevards  shouting  "  A  bas  la  Prusse  !  " 
"  Vive  la  guerre  !  "  "A  Berlin!"  As  the  regiments  passed 
through  on  their  way  to  the  front,  the  newspapers  announced 
to  the  world  the  composition  and  disposition  of  the  formidable 
army  spread  out  on  a  broad  front  from  Thionville  to  the  gap 
of  Belfort,  seven  army  corps  under  generals  who  had  increased 
the  renown  of  French  arms  at  Magenta  and  Solferino,  at 
Rome,  in  Mexico,  and  in  Algeria.  The  4th  Corps,  under 
General  L'Admirault,  was  stationed  at  Thionville ;  the   3d, 


458  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1870 

under  Marshal  Bazaine,  in  the  rear  of  this,  near  Metz;  the 
2d,  under  General  Frossard,  near  St.  Avoid;  the  5th,  under 
General  de  Failly,  at  Bitsche;  the  1st,  under  Marshal  Mac- 
Mahon,  in  Strasburg;  the  7th,  under  General  Felix  Douay, 
at  Belfort ;  the  6th,  under  Marshal  Canrobert,  in  Chalons ; 
and  the  Imperial  Guard  was  escorting  the  emperor  from 
Paris  to  the  front. 

Napoleon's  whole  plan  failed  from  the  start.  In  prepara- 
tion, organization,  equipment,  the  French  army  was  miserably 
deficient.  The  Germans  had  as  much  time  to  prepare  as  the 
French,  for  the  declaration  of  war  was  delivered  at  Berlin  on 
July  19,  1870,  only  four  days  after  the  reserves  were  called 
to  arms.  In  fact,  they  were  already  prepared,  their  trans- 
port service  thoroughly  organized,  all  equipments  and  sup- 
plies ready,  their  officers  instructed  sufficiently  to  carry  on  a 
campaign  up  to  the  gates  of  Paris,  and  in  the  archives  of  the 
staff  corps  were  pigeonholed  maps  of  routes  and  terrain  and 
plans  for  all  the  contingencies  of  an  offensive  or  a  defensive 
campaign,  like  the  analysis  of  a  game  of  chess,  with  more 
information  regarding  the  French  army  and  defenses  than 
the  French  emperor  himself  could  obtain.  No  one  was  more 
surprised  than  he  at  the  difficulties  and  delays  that  arose  to 
obstruct  his  plan  of  throwing  an  overwhelming  force  against 
the  Rhine  fortresses  the  day  after  war  was  declared.  The 
railroad  transport  was  so  defective  that  only  40,000  men 
could  get  through  to  Strasburg  at  once.  Of  eight  corps  com- 
posing the  attacking  army,  five  were  still  on  the  Moselle,  only 
two  were  in  Alsace,  and  one  only  stood  on  the  frontier  when 
war  was  declared,  General  Frossard's  corps  at  St.  Avoid, 
which  was  ordered  to  remain  on  the  defensive.  The  regi- 
ments had  marched  out  of  quarters  insufficiently  equipped 
and  much  under  strength,  and  when  reserves  were  called  out 
to  fill  the  ranks  these  crowded  the  railroad  stations  and 
blocked  the  traffic,  waiting  to  be  forwarded  to  their  regiments 
in  the  labyrinth  of  encampments  to  which  no  one  had  the 
clue.  When  they  joined  their  regiments  at  last,  they  found 
no  arms  or  equipments  provided  for  them.  Corps  were  with- 
out artillery,  divisions  had  no  baggage,  there  were  no  ambu- 
lances, and  there  was  a  surprising  and  embarrassing  lack  of 
officers  in  every  regiment.     As  magazines  had  not  been  es- 


1870]  BATTLE   OF   SEDAN  459 

tablished  beforehand,  the  troops  looked  for  supplies  to  the 
fortresses  ;  but  none  were  there,  because  the  army  was  so  sure 
of  carrying  the  war  at  once  into  the  enemy's  country  that  no 
provision  had  been  made  for  defense.  Staff  officers  had  been 
provided  with  maps  of  Germany,  but  they  had  none  of  their 
own  country.  The  Ministry  of  War  at  Paris,  overwhelmed 
with  questions,  complaints,  and  demands,  could  do  nothing  to 
unravel  the  hopeless  tangle,  and  left  the  officers  on  the  spot 
to  solve  their  difficulties  in  their  own  way. 

The  emperor  arrived  in  Metz  a  week  after  war  had  been 
declared,  to  find  the  regiments  not  yet  complete  and  the 
troops  so  jumbled  and  dislocated,  so  ill-equipped  and  dis- 
couraged, that,  when  he  gave  orders  for  an  advance,  his 
marshals  told  him  it  was  impossible  to  move  an  army  in 
such  a  condition. 

Ever  since  Austria  was  cast  out  into  the  Orient,  Prussia 
had  been  preparing  for  a  war  with  France.  In  that  fiery 
hearth  were  the  elements  of  German  unity  to  be  fused  and 
smelted.  The  Prussian  staff,  with  General  von  Moltke  as 
chief,  had  the  plans  for  instant  mobilization  of  the  North 
German  army  under  constant  study,  and  for  every  change 
the  Ministry  of  War  made  the  necessary  provisions.  Every 
branch  of  the  administration  throughout  the  country  had  all 
necessary  information  and  instructions  for  carrying  out  the 
plan.  The  South  German  states  entered  into  a  complete 
alliance  with  Prussia,  and  agreed  to  the  plan  of  campaign, 
though  it  involved  danger  to  their  armies,  which  were  to 
march  at  once  into  the  enemy's  country,  and  danger  to  their 
frontiers,  thus  left  unguarded.  The  order  of  march  and  plans 
for  railroad  and  steamboat  transport  were  worked  out  in  the 
minutest  detail  for  each  division,  the  time  of  departure  and 
arrival,  halts  for  refreshment,  and  the  provision  of  canton- 
ments, stores,  and  magazines  at  the  place  of  destination.  All 
was  prearranged  with  the  nicest  precision,  and  when  King 
William  signed  the  order  for  mobilization,  three  days  before 
he  received  the  expected  declaration  of  war,  he  knew  that 
a  fortnight  later  he  would  find  an  army  of  300,000  men  beyond 
the  Rhine,  all  ready  to  march  into  France. 

Beyond  the  concentration  on  the  frontier  and  the  invasion 
of  Alsace  across  the  middle  Rhine,  nothing  was  decided  upon 


460  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1870 

beforehand.  The  maneuvers  to  follow  were  left  to  the  deci- 
sion of  the  moment.  The  general  plan  of  the  war  was  to 
attack  the  enemy  wherever  found ;  to  keep  the  army  in  com- 
pact masses,  always  able  to  throw  a  superior  force  into  the 
field ;  to  push  on  to  Paris,  the  vital  point  of  France,  whose 
capture  was  expected  to  end  the  war ;  and,  in  the  advance, 
to  hammer  on  the  French  right  flank,  so  as  to  turn  the  enemy's 
forces  out  of  the  fertile  southern  provinces  into  the  narrower 
region  in  the  north.  The  mobilized  German  forces  were 
divided  into  three  independent  armies :  the  first  army,  com- 
posed of  60,000  men,  encamped  at  Wittlich  under  General 
von  Steinmetz,  forming  the  right  wing ;  the  army  of  the 
center,  131,000  strong,  under  Prince  Frederick  Charles,  as- 
sembled at  Homburg  and  Neunkirchen,  with  a  reserve  of 
63,000  men  encamped  at  Mayence ;  and  the  third  army, 
forming  the  left  wing,  composed  of  two  of  the  Prussian  and 
the  two  Bavarian  corps,  with  the  Wiirtemberg  and  Baden  field 
divisions,  gathered  in  the  vicinity  of  Landau  and  Rastatt  under 
the  command  of  the  Crown  Prince  Frederick. 

The  disparity  in  numerical  strength  between  the  Prussian 
and  the  French  armies  was  due  to  the  firm,  strong  govern- 
ment in  Prussia,  which  had  forced  the  gigantic  military  organ- 
ization against  the  will  of  the  people  and  in  defiance  of  the 
votes  of  the  Parliament.  In  the  Bohemian  campaign  of  1866 
Prussia  brought  into  the  field  an  army  of  350,000  men,  one  to 
every  fifty-four  inhabitants.  Napoleon  III.  at  the  summit  of 
his  power  could  not  force  upon  France  such  a  system  of  mili- 
tary service.  After  Koniggratz  he  endeavored  to  increase 
the  conscription  so  that  France  could  send  into  the  field  one 
in  seventy  of  the  population,  giving  an  army  equal  in  num- 
bers to  that  of  Prussia  ;  but  his  usually  servile  majority  in  the 
Corps  Legislatif  drew  back  under  the  pressure  of  public  opin- 
ion, and  voted  some  apparent  changes  that  left  the  army 
practically  what  it  was  before.  In  training  and  discipline 
the  Prussian  army  was  as  much  superior  to  the  French  as  it 
was  in  numbers,  showing  the  same  subordination  to  a  firm 
authority  that  was  lacking  in  France,  founded  on  a  faith  in 
the  government  and  its  mission  as  the  instrument  in  the  uni- 
fication of  Germany  that  had  grown  immensely  stronger  since 
Koniggratz  and  the  confident  assertion  of  Prussian  headship. 


1870]  BATTLE   OF   SEDAN  46 1 

The  hasty  despatch  of  the  French  troops  to  the  field  before 
they  were  prepared  for  service  failed  of  the  purpose  of  sur- 
prising the  Germans  and  administering  a  check  before  they 
could  form.  The  French  commanders  perceived  that  instead 
of  attacking  the  enemy  in  his  country,  they  would  have  to 
defend  their  own.  The  plan  of  landing  a  force  in  northern 
Prussia  was  already  abandoned,  and  when  the  French  fleet 
sailed  round  it  was  without  troops.  The  intention  of  invad- 
ing South  Germany  was  at  once  given  up.  Instead  of  mass- 
ing a  force  on  the  Rhine  to  cross  near  Strasburg,  troops  were 
despatched  from  Metz  to  the  Saar,  where  the  army  of  General 
von  Steinmetz  was  concentrated  at  Wadern,  while  the  German 
center  rested  on  the  Haardt  Mountains,  and  the  Crown  Prince's 
army  gathered  rapidly  on  both  banks  of  the  Rhine  in  time  to 
prevent  the  intended  French  invasion  of  the  Black  Forest 
between  Strasburg  and  Belfort,  and  to  support  the  center, 
which  was  being  pushed  forward  like  a  wedge  on  the  Saar. 
The  French  made  a  reconnoissance  in  force  at  Saarbriicken, 
but  dared  not  cross  the  stream  to  cut  the  railroad.  They 
could  form  no  plan.  They  knew  not  where  to  strike,  nor 
what  point  to  defend,  and  between  contrary  resolutions  and 
contradictory  orders  wasted  time  and  scattered  their  forces, 
which  were  spread  out  from  the  Nied  to  the  upper  Rhine, 
compelling  them  eventually  to  divide  into  the  separate  armies 
of  Marshal  MacMahon  and  Marshal  Bazaine.  The  attack  on 
Saarbriicken  was  useless  as  a  reconnoissance,  for  the  French 
did  not  come  within  sight  of  the  German  troops,  which  were 
swarming  in  the  forest  a  short  distance  beyond  the  frontier. 
The  garrison  of  2500  men  withdrew  after  a  few  shots,  and 
General  Frossard's  corps  entered  the  town,  only  to  retire  im- 
mediately, leaving  the  place  to  be  reoccupied  by  the  Prussians 
the  same  afternoon.  This  aimless  and  insignificant  action  was 
theatrically  arranged  for  political  effect,  for  the  people  were 
growing  very  impatient  at  the  inaction  of  the  army.  The 
emperor  was  there,  and  the  Prince  Imperial  fired  off  the  first 
mitrailleuse,  receiving  his  "baptism  of  fire,"  according  to  his 
father's  magniloquent  despatch.  These  mitrailleuse  guns 
were  a  new  invention  from  which  the  French  expected  much ; 
nor  were  they  disappointed,  for  the  execution  was  good  and 
the  moral  effect  considerable  in  the  early  days  of  the  campaign. 


462  DECISIVE  BATTLES  [1870 

The  war  opened  in  the  south  with  a  staggering  and  disas- 
trous defeat  for  the  French.  General  MacMahon  advanced 
one  division  to  the  frontier  town  of  Weissenburg,  on  the 
Lauter,  while  with  the  rest  of  his  corps  he  tried  to  keep  in 
touch  with  General  de  Failly's  corps.  Without  knowing  the 
danger,  he  had  exposed  his  troops  so  that  they  could  be 
crushed  in  detail  by  the  third  German  army,  which  poured 
suddenly  out  of  the  forest  and  over  the  Rhine  while  General 
de  Failly  was  still  at  Bitsche  and  General  Douay  at  Belfort. 
After  the  Crown  Prince's  army  crossed-  the  frontier  on  August 
4th  and  drove  out  the  gallant  defenders  of  Weissenburg,  Gen- 
eral MacMahon  endeavored  to  bring  up  his  three  corps  and 
check  the  German  advance  by  an  immediate  attack ;  but  the 
Bavarians  and  Prussians  were  in  stronger  force  in  the  san- 
guinary battle  of  Worth,  where  more  than  10,000  fell  on  each 
side  and  9000  Frenchmen  were  made  prisoners.  Marshal 
MacMahon  handled  his  admirable  corps  with  the  utmost  skill ; 
but,  owing  to  the  general  unreadiness  and  initial  disorganiza- 
tion of  the  French  military  system,  it  received  no  support, 
was  outnumbered  and  outflanked,  and  therefore  was  broken 
and  routed,  retreating  far  back  to  Luneville. 

The  body  politic  was  disordered,  and  the  nearer  to  the  cen- 
tral power  the  more  apparent  the  disorganization.  In  the 
north  Napoleon  was  in  supreme  command.  General  Fros- 
sard,  prudently  retiring  from  Saarbriicken,  took  up  a  strong 
position  on  the  Speichern  hills,  where  the  Germans  blunder- 
ingly attacked  him.  Four  other  French  corps  were  encamped 
within  sound  of  the  guns,  including  the  emperor's  own  guards, 
and  yet  such  was  the  lack  of  decision  and  concord  among  the 
French  generals  that  they  formed  no  line  of  battle  to  arrest 
the  German  advance,  nor  even  sent  a  single  division  to  Fros- 
sard's  support,  allowing  the  enemy  gradually  to  bring  up  force 
enough  to  shell  and  storm  the  heights. 

Thus  on  August  6th,  the  second  day  from  the  opening  of 
active  hostilities,  the  Germans  won  signal  victories  on  both 
wings,  and  the  French  army  was  split  in  two.  A  retreat  was 
decided  upon,  was  necessary.  Should  the  enemy  be  left  in 
possession  of  the  eastern  provinces,  and  the  army  fall  back  to 
Chalons  to  reorganize  ?  That  was  the  first  strategic  decision, 
and  then  thoughts  of  the  ungovernable  fury  of  the  French 


1870]  BATTLE   OF   SEDAN  463 

people  and  the  danger  to  the  dynasty  caused  further  irreso- 
lution, the  countermanding  of  orders,  aimless  movements  of 
troops  hither  and  thither.  The  diminished  French  field  army 
was  still  200,000  strong.  Protected  by  the  forts  of  Metz,  it 
might  contest  the  crossing  of  the  Moselle  or  might  fall  back 
on  the  stronger  position  of  Verdun. 

The  Germans,  not  knowing  the  extent  of  the  French  de- 
moralization, did  not  rush  across  the  Vosges  to  overtake  the 
French  in  full  retreat,  but,  wheeling  their  three  armies  into 
line,  advanced  cautiously,  covering  a  solid  front  of  twelve 
miles.  They  came  within  touch  of  Metz  before  the  French 
had  completed  their  dispositions,  and,  finding  them  apparently 
in  retreat  beyond  the  Moselle,  precipitated  themselves  upon 
the  outworks  of  Metz.  At  Colombey  and  Nouilly,  on  August 
14th,  they  lost  5000  men,  the  French  but  two  thirds  as  many  ; 
at  Vionville  and  Mars-le-Tour  they  won  a  dear  victory.  They 
then  pushed  a  part  of  their  forces  over  the  Moselle  to  cut  off 
the  line  of  retreat  to  Verdun.  The  emperor,  who  felt  ag- 
grieved because  he  was  being  made  responsible  for  the 
wretched  situation  of  the  army,  gave  over  the  command  to 
Marshal  Bazaine,  and  departed  for  Chalons.  Bazaine,  on  his 
own  responsibility,  ordered  the  retreat  that  the  emperor  dared 
not  make  because  it  would  be  abandoning  Lorraine  ;  but  four 
precious  days  had  been  lost.  When  the  columns  moved  down 
the  road  they  found  it  occupied  by  the  troops  of  Prince  Fred- 
erick Charles.  The  French  proved  how  they  could  fight  in 
the  general  engagement  of  Gravelotte,  which  the  arrival  of 
fresh  forces  and  the  heroic  capture  of  St.  Privat  turned  to 
the  advantage  of  the  Germans,  with  the  result  that  Bazaine 
with  175,000  men  was  blockaded  in  Metz  and  kept  there  by 
only  150,000  German  troops  under  Prince  Frederick  Charles, 
who  was  able  after  the  siege-works  were  completed,  to  draw 
off  three  quarters  of  this  force  when  necessary.  The  inferi- 
ority of  their  artillery  was  one  of  the  serious  disadvantages 
under  which  the  French  labored.  Napoleon  had  failed  to 
keep  track  of  the  great  improvements  in  range  and  weight  of 
fire  made  in  the  Prussian  guns  since  the  Austrian  war.  The 
French  infantry  weapon,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Chassepot 
rifle,  was  superior  to  the  needle-gun,  having  a  quicker  breech 
action,  longer  range,  a  flatter  trajectory,  and  more    deadly 


464  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1870 

execution.  But  the  Prussian  soldiers  more  than  made  up  for 
the  deficiency  by  their  perfect  infantry  drill,  making  use  of 
every  cover,  throwing  up  protecting  mounds,  and  firing  with 
steady  aim  and  deliberate  judgment.  The  French  cavalry 
performed  desperate  deeds  of  valor  in  action,  riding  to  cer- 
tain death  in  the  vain  endeavor  to  save  battles  already  lost,  or 
in  covering  the  retreat  of  shattered  battalions ;  but  for  obser- 
vation purposes  it  was  useless,  for  the  Germans  spread  their 
cavalry  out  like  a  fan  in  front  of  their  advancing  columns,  so 
that  it  formed  an  impenetrable  screen  for  every  movement, 
while  their  mounted  scouts  ranged  over  the  whole  country, 
keeping  their  commanders  informed  at  all  times  of  the  posi- 
tion and  movements  of  the  enemy. 

At  Chalons  Marshal  MacMahon  reformed  the  remainder 
of  the  French  field  forces.  Against  them  the  army  of  the 
Crown  Prince  and  the  newly  constituted  German  army  of 
the  Meuse,  together  223,000  strong,  advanced  rapidly  to  the 
Meuse,  threatening  Paris  as  well  as  the  French  right  flank. 
If  Bazaine  would  come  on  to  Verdun,  the  French  could  meet 
the  Germans  with  nearly  equal  forces.  Marshal  MacMahon, 
suspecting  the  critical  position  at  Metz,  but  not  knowing  that 
Bazaine's  communications  were  actually  severed,  when  the 
enemy  appeared  on  his  own  flank,  determined  to  take  a  posi- 
tion at  Rheims,  whence  he  might  either  form  a  junction  with 
the  army  of  the  Rhine  or,  if  necessary,  fall  back  on  Paris, 
where  under  the  protection  of  the  fortifications  he  could  risk 
a  battle,  notwithstanding  his  numerical  inferiority.  Cut  off 
from  Rheims  by  the  Crown  Prince's  forces,  he  decided  to 
retreat  to  Paris  at  once,  and  then  changed  his  mind  on  receiv- 
ing despatches  from  Metz  indicating  that  Marshal  Bazaine 
intended  to  fight  his  way  to  Chalons  or  Sedan.  Unwilling 
to  desert  his  comrades,  he  moved  round  the  Germans  on  the 
northeast,  while  they  advanced  in  a  direct  line  westward,  and 
thus  himself  carried  out  General  von  Moltke's  plan,  which 
was  to  force  the  French  northward,  off  the  direct  route  to 
Paris.  That  the  French  commander  should  abandon  his 
communications  with  the  capital,  leave  the  Paris  route  in  the 
hands  of  the  enemy,  and  make  a  long  detour  by  the  way  of 
the  Belgian  frontier  in  order  to  succor  Marshal  Bazaine  at 
Metz  at  first  seemed  impossible  to  the  Germans,  and  when 


1870]  BATTLE   OF   SEDAN  465 

their  cavalry  came  upon  the  French  in  the  north,  they 
changed  their  line  of  march  but  slightly,  so  that  the  Meuse 
army  might  hold  the  French  in  check  on  the  Meuse  in  con- 
junction with  the  reserves  of  the  army  besieging  Metz,  where 
Bazaine,  lacking  food  supplies  and  ammunition,  was  in  a 
helpless  condition.  The  speeches  of  French  deputies  raging 
against  a  French  general  who  would  leave  his  comrade  in 
the  lurch,  followed  by  newspaper  reports  that  MacMahon 
had  resolved  to  hasten  to  Bazaine's  assistance,  though  the 
abandonment  of  the  Paris  road  placed  the  country  in  danger, 
almost  convinced  them  that  here  again,  as  in  Bazaine's  stand 
at  Metz,  politics,  not  strategy,  would  govern.  They  com- 
pleted their  dispositions  accordingly,  moving  up  the  newly 
formed  fourth  army,  commanded  by  the  Crown  Prince  of 
Saxony,  to  hold  him  until  the  Crown  Prince  of  Prussia  could 
bring  up  the  third  army  by  forced  marches  in  time  to  sweep 
round  upon  his  right  flank  and  hem  him  in  against  the 
Belgian  frontier. 

MacMahon  continued  his  eastward  march  until  he  learned 
that  the  army  of  the  Rhine  was  still  in  Metz.  At  the  same 
time  he  became  aware  of  the  two  German  armies  moving  up 
on  his  flank,  and  he  decided  to  save  his  own  army  by  retreat. 
But  the  next  day  he  received  peremptory  instructions  from 
the  empress  and  Council  of  Ministers  in  Paris  to  push  on  to 
the  relief  of  Metz,  lest  a  revolution  break  out.  The  emperor 
was  with  Marshal  MacMahon,  and  he  knew  the  peril  to  be 
incurred  by  continuing  the  march,  the  almost  certain  destruc- 
tion of  the  army ;  yet  he  abstained  from  exercising  any 
authority  over  his  general,  believing  the  empire  doomed  in 
any  event.  He  had  resolved,  he  afterwards  said,  "to  submit 
to  the  consequences  of  the  fatality  that  attended  all  the  reso- 
lutions of  the  government."  Once  more  allowing  his  military 
convictions  to  give  way  to  the  political  exigency,  MacMahon 
countermanded  his  orders,  and  attempted  to  reach  Montmedy 
by  Stenay.  Finding  the  Prussians  at  Stenay,  he  endeavored 
to  cross  the  river  Meuse  at  Mouzon,  where  the  left  wing  was 
checked  on  August  30th,  while  the  Bavarians  of  the  Crown 
Prince's  army  fell  upon  the  right  wing  and  crumpled  up 
General  de  Failly's  corps.  Marshal  MacMahon  determined 
to  concentrate  on  Sedan  and  accept  battle  under  the  protec- 


466  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1870 

tion  of  the  fortress,  although  the  Emperor  Napoleon  pro- 
posed flight  into  Belgium.  The  French  army  of  nearly 
100,000  combatants  was  drawn  up  for  battle,  its  rear  resting 
on  the  fortress,  its  flanks  sheltered  by  the  Meuse  and  the 
Givonne  and  Floing  valleys,  woods  and  ridges  beyond  pro- 
tecting the  line  of  retreat,  either  into  Belgian  territory  or 
towards  the  fortified  position  of  Mezieres.  The  German  gen- 
erals had  time  to  arrange  their  forces  for  the  most  scientific 
battle  of  the  war.  They  had  250,000  men  and  a  great  pre- 
ponderance of  guns,  and,  throwing  their  lines  entirely  about 
the  position,  the  converging  fire  of  the  batteries  became  more 
destructive  as  the  outworks  were  carried  and  the  encircling 
arc  was  drawn  closer,  first  a  semicircle,  then  the  ends  incurv- 
ing to  form  a  complete  circle  of  fire  around  the  town.  So 
also  was  the  crushing  mass  of  assailants  more  irresistible  as 
the  line  coiled  closer  round  the  doomed  army. 

The  Bavarian  troops,  the  ones  that  struck  the  first  blow  in 
the  war,  were  destined  to  bear  a  prominent  part  in  the  deci- 
sive engagement.  General  von  der  Tann,  before  dawn  on 
September  1st,  sent  a  force  to  take  the  town  of  Bazeilles,  the 
most  exposed  part  of  the  French  position.  The  French 
defended  every  house,  aided  by  the  citizens,  and  the  obstinate 
and  murderous  combat  lasted  many  hours  with  varying  suc- 
cess, while  reenforcements  were  sent  in  from  both  sides.  At 
length  the  Bavarians  gained  the  most  commanding  position 
and  brought  up  their  guns.  Then  they  aided  the  Saxon 
troops  to  capture  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Givonne,  and  there 
also  a  battery  was  planted.  In  the  fight  for  La  Moncelle, 
leading  to  this  position,  Marshal  MacMahon  was  wounded 
by  a  fragment  of  a  shell.  General  Ducrot,  whom  he  named 
his  successor  in  command,  gave  orders  for  a  retreat  through 
Illy  to  Mezieres.  But  General  Wimpffen,  recently  arrived 
from  Algiers,  brought  secret  instructions  to  assume  command 
in  case  the  marshal  was  disabled.  Deeming  a  retreat  to 
Mezieres  impossible,  because  the  Crown  Prince's  army  was 
posted  at  Donchery,  ready  to  fall  on  the  flank  of  the  French 
army  if  such  a  movement  were  attempted,  he  asserted  his 
authority  from  the  Ministry  of  War,  to  which  General  Ducrot 
willingly  submitted,  and  gave  orders  to  attempt  the  opposite 
maneuver  of  an  advance  to  Carignan,  hoping  to  cut  his  way 


1870]  BATTLE   OF   SEDAN  467 

through  the  Bavarians  and  Saxons  and  effect  a  junction  with 
Marshal  Bazaine.  The  Emperor  Napoleon,  who  had  arrived 
at  Sedan  simultaneously  with  the  army,  disapproved  the  haz- 
ardous attempt  and  was  already  disposed  to  capitulate. 

The  first  onset  on  the  German  advanced  guard  met  with  a 
momentary  success.  A  fierce  attack  of  Zouaves  caused  the 
Saxons  on  the  right  to  waver,  and  tirailleurs  with  their  long- 
ranged  Chassepots  compelled  the  batteries  to  retire  from  the 
banks  of  the  Givonne.  Then  fresh  Bavarian  and  Saxon 
brigades  came  up,  and  then  the  Prussian  guards  appeared, 
followed  by  another  corps.  The  attempt  to  force  a  passage 
through  to  Carignan  had  failed,  while  the  line  of  retreat  to 
Mezieres  was  blocked  now  by  two  Prussian  corps,  which 
extended  their  line  round  by  Illy,  cutting  off  retreat  into  Bel- 
gium. The  French  were  thus  hemmed  in  on  all  sides.  Gen- 
eral Gallifet's  lancers  and  chasseurs  d 'Afriqice  charged  upon 
the  first  Prussian  cavalry  that  emerged  at  Illy,  only  to  rush 
into  the  terrific  fire  of  infantry  hidden  by  the  woods  and 
shrapnel  from  batteries  suddenly  unmasked. 

An  artillery  park  composed  of  the  batteries  of  two  army 
corps  was  ranged  along  the  hillside  south  of  St.  Menges, 
while  strong  columns  of  infantry  advanced  upon  Fleigneux. 
The  Bavarian  corps  guarded  the  left  bank  of  the  Meuse, 
while  five  corps  d'arm^e  were  drawn  up  on  the  right  bank  for 
a  concentric  attack.  The  Prussian  artillery  drove  the  French 
batteries  from  place  to  place  and  silenced  many  of  them. 
Later  the  batteries  of  the  Meuse  army  and  those  of  the  Prus- 
sian guards,  which  took  position  on  the  slope  of  the  Givonne, 
destroyed  the  last  of  the  French  batteries.  The  French 
troops  in  the  Givonne  valley  were  subjected  to  a  fire  from 
both  sides.  Their  main  body  was  hidden  in  the  wood  of 
Garenne,  under  cover  of  the  fortress.  When  the  Germans 
assailed  the  heights  of  Illy,  General  Wimpffen  first  thought 
that  an  attack  from  the  north  could  be  nothing  but  a  feint. 
But  quickly  he  saw  the  necessity  of  sending  assistance  in 
that  direction,  and  soon  had  to  despatch  a  division  towards 
Bazelles  to  rescue  the  12th  Corps,  which  was  falling  back  in 
disorderly  flight  to  Sedan.  These  marches  and  counter- 
marches were  executed  under  fire  of  the  German  artillery  on 
both  sides.     When  the  division  of  General  Liebert,  holding 


468  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1870 

the  hills  north  of  Casal,  attacked  on  both  flanks  and  shelled 
at  the  same  time,  at  last  gave  way,  the  French  cavalry  issued 
from  the  wood  in  repeated  charges  past  the  batteries  and 
through  the  infantry,  until  half  of  them  were  shot  down. 
The  heights  at  Casal  were  taken,  then  those  west  of  the 
Givonne,  the  German  batteries  were  erected  there,  and  by 
three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  they  were  pouring  shell  into  the 
Bois  de  Garenne  and  into  the  city  from  both  banks  of  the 
Meuse.  When  the  German  infantry  entered  the  Bois  de 
■Garenne,  they  found  it  thronged  with  broken  corps  and  strag- 
glers of  all  arms.  Some  offered  a  fierce  resistance,  others  sur- 
rendered by  thousands.  Round  the  walls  of  the  fortress  and 
inside  were  bodies  of  troops  among  whom  German  shells  were 
bursting,  and  the  city  was  in  flames,  when  a  flag  of  truce  was 
displayed,  just  as  the  Bavarians  were  about  to  escalade  the 
gates.  First  came  a  letter  from  the  Emperor  Napoleon  to 
King  William.  Not  having  been  able  to  die  in  the  midst  of 
his  troops,  he  placed  his  sword  in  his  brother  sovereign's  hands. 
On  the  demand  of  the  Germans,  General  Wimpffen  came  to 
hear  from  General  von  Moltke  the  terms  exacted,  the  disarma- 
ment and  detention  of  the  entire  army.  The  French  general 
begged  that  his  troops  might  be  allowed  to  be  disarmed  in 
Belgium,  but  General  von  Moltke  insisted  on  their  surrender 
as  prisoners  of  war.  These  hard  conditions  were  accepted 
on  the  morning  of  September  2d,  to  avert  a  renewal  of  the  bom- 
bardment. In  most  of  the  previous  German  victories  they,  as 
the  assailants,  lost  more  heavily  than  the  French.  At  Sedan 
their  artillery  was  so  much  stronger,  and  the  French  defense 
so  desperately  prolonged,  that  their  casualties  were  only  half 
those  of  the  French,  who  lost  17,000  killed  or  wounded,  21,000 
taken  in  action,  and  83,000  surrendered. 

Marshal  Bazaine,  knowing  nothing  of  the  attempt  of  the 
army  of  Chalons  to  come  to  his  succor,  but  seeing  the  besieg- 
ing army  greatly  reduced,  made  a  sortie  from  Metz;  and  on 
the  very  day  of  the  battle  of  Sedan  his  army  was  repelled 
by  the  Prussians,  though  outnumbering  them  four  to  one,  for 
he  had  no  artillery. 

With  the  fall  of  Sedan  the  empire  came  to  an  end.  The 
Republic  was  proclaimed  in  Paris  on  September  4th,  and 
General  Trochu  with  some  of  the  Republicans  in  the  Chamber 


MOLTKE  A  T  SEDAN. 

Photogravure  from  a  painting  by  A.  von  Werner. 


1870]  BATTLE    OF   SEDAN  469 

formed  the  Government  of  National  Defense  and  called  the 
entire  nation  to  arms,  proclaiming  that  not  an  inch  of  terri- 
tory, not  a  stone  of  the  fortresses,  would  be  given  up  to  the 
enemy.  The  two  armies  in  the  field  were  beaten,  but  they 
were  only  the  first  line.  The  resources  of  France  were 
scarcely  tapped,  if  patriotism  could  be  roused  to  make 
sufficient  sacrifices.  This  was  the  reasoning  of  such  civilian 
strategists  as  Gambetta  and  Freycinet,  and  it  was  the  feeling 
of  the  whole  French  people.  Patriotism  was  not  wanting, 
nor  sacrifice  of  blood  and  treasure  and  individual  happiness 
to  the  point  of  heroism.  Gambetta,  the  minister  of  war  in 
the  Provisional  Government,  an  orator,  a  magnetic  leader,  a 
political  organizer,  rallied  the  population  to  the  flag.  He 
raised  an  army  that  in  numbers  greatly  exceeded  the  German 
forces,  an  army  of  over  1,000,000.  He  did  not  know,  nor 
did  Freycinet,  who  aided  him  in  directing  this  untrained 
soldiery,  that  the  issue  of  the  war  was  decided  by  a  single 
month's  operations.  They  prolonged  the  struggle  for  six 
months  more.  They  brought  untold  hardships  on  France, 
subjected  Paris  to  famine,  bombardment,  revolution,  and  the 
provinces  to  devastation,  wasted  the  accumulated  wealth  of 
the  country,  crippled  its  productive  energies,  sent  out  with 
ruthless  hardihood  the  undrilled  battalions  to  test  ill-digested 
plans  against  the  sure  science  of  German  strategists,  staked 
the  lives  of  French  citizens  wholesale  in  a  gambler's  fever, 
entailed  on  Germany,  too,  her  heaviest  sacrifices,  and  in  the 
end  made  harder  terms  for  France.  The  French  have  come 
to  love  France  the  more  for  the  sufferings  she  endured,  and 
to  love  the  republic  that  was  born  in  such  travail.  The  war 
a  outrance  was  fought  almost  to  the  bitter  end,  and  then  the 
Government  of  National  Defense  stepped  aside.  Thiers,  as 
soon  as  he  was  elected  chief  of  the  executive  by  the  National 
Assembly,  negotiated  a  peace.  France  surrendered  to  Ger- 
many most  of  Lorraine  and  all  Alsace  except  Belfort,  and 
paid  an  indemnity  of  five  milliard  francs. 

The  severance  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine  from  France  was 
like  the  lopping  off  of  a  member  from  the  living  body, 
and  the  annexation  of  these  imperial  provinces  by  Germany 
has  been  a  source  of  disquietude  and  danger,  dominating  the 
whole  military  situation  of  Europe.    The  rapidity  with  which 


470  DECISIVE    BATTLES  [1870 

the  enormous  money  ransom  was  raised  in  France  to  deliver 
the  remaining  provinces  caused  Prince  Bismarck  to  regret 
that  he  had  not  drained  France  as  a  butcher  drains  the  last 
drop  of  blood  from  a  leg  of  veal.  The  vitality  of  the  repub- 
lic, which  the  conquerors  approved  because  it  was  supposed 
to  be  the  weakest,  most  discordant  form  of  government  for 
France,  has  caused  them  constant  anxiety.  The  restoration 
of  the  military  organization  of  France  on  a  basis  as  wide  as 
the  nation,  on  a  higher  scale  of  efficiency  than  has  been 
known  since  the  first  empire,  has  led  to  a  rivalry  on  the 
part  of  Germany,  and  to  excessive  military  training  and 
armament  in  most  of  the  European  nations.  The  present 
military  alliances,  the  triple  alliance  between  Germany,  Aus- 
tria, and  Italy,  followed  by  the  defensive  alliance  between 
France  and  Russia,  render  more  appalling  the  specter  of  a 
European  war,  springing  from  the  desire  of  France  to  revenge 
Sedan  and  regain  the  lost  provinces,  from  aggressive  move- 
ments in  the  East,  or  from  jealousies  and  complications  yet 
to  arise.  The  emulous  increase  of  naval  armaments  has  fol- 
lowed upon  the  introduction  of  the  Prussian  system  of  uni- 
versal liability  to  arms.  Colonial  expansion  and  intense 
commercial  rivalry  between  nations  have  come  in  as  new 
elements  of  danger,  and  have  complicated  the  situation  by 
involving  the  naval  powers.  Some  military  and  political 
prophets  believe  the  specter  of  a  European  war  to  be  only 
a  specter.  The  dual  alliance,  like  the  triple  alliance,  is  pro- 
claimed to  be  a  league  of  peace.  A  war  between  the  military 
powers  of  Europe  on  the  scale  of  their  present  armaments 
would  be  so  destructive  that  no  impious  hand  may  be  found 
to  light  the  signal  torch,  nor  can  such  forces  be  brought  into 
collision  at  the  instance  of  a  truculent  or  ambitious  prince  or 
statesman.  When  nations  in  arms  meet  in  the  clash  of  war, 
both  sides  must  suffer  incalculable  injury.  For  war  like  that 
there  must  be  some  deep,  irreconcilable  sense  of  harm  and 
hatred,  such  as  even  the  question  of  Alsace-Lorraine  has  not 
produced,  or  some  high  national  ambition  affecting  the  hap- 
piness of  the  whole  people.  Field-Marshal  von  Moltke, 
reflecting  on  the  Franco-German  war  sixteen  years  after  its 
termination,  wrote  as  follows  :  — 

"The  days  are  gone  by  when,  for  dynastical  ends,  small 


1870]  BATTLE   OF   SEDAN  47 1 

armies  of  professional  soldiers  went  to  war  to  conquer  a  city 
or  a  province,  and  then  sought  winter  quarters  or  made  peace. 
The  wars  of  the  present  day  call  whole  nations  to  arms;  there 
is  scarcely  a  family  that  does  not  suffer  by  them.  The  entire 
financial  resources  of  the  state  are  appropriated  to  the  pur- 
pose, and  the  different  seasons  of  the  year  have  no  bearing 
on  the  unceasing  progress  of  hostilities.  As  long  as  nations 
continue  independent  of  each  other,  there  will  be  disagree- 
ments that  can  only  be  settled  by  arms ;  but,  in  the  interest 
of  humanity,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  wars  will  become  less 
frequent,  as  they  have  become  more  terrible." 

The  battle  of  Sedan,  from  which  dates  the  birth  of  the 
German  empire  as  well  as  the  death  of  Imperialism  in 
France,  marks  the  triumph  of  the  principle  of  nationalism 
in  Europe.  Nations  had  been  formed  before  Germany  united 
—  Greece,  Servia,  Roumania,  Hungary,  Italy.  Since  then 
Bulgaria  has  been  created.  Greeks,  Bulgarians,  Servians, 
Roumanians,  Italians,  are  still  yearning  for  unredeemed  terri- 
tories peopled  by  their  brothers  ;  Irish,  Czechs,  and  Nor- 
wegians are  clamoring  for  fuller  opportunities  of  national 
development,  larger  rights  of  self-government,  while  the 
stifled  cry  of  suffering  Poland  grows  fainter.  Croats,  Flem- 
ings, and  other  races  are  beginning  to  aspire  to  national  life. 
Which  of  these  nationalities  will  win,  which  preserve  an  inde- 
pendent political  existence,  prophets  may  tell.  In  contem- 
porary Europe  nationalities  can  be  strangled  as  they  never 
could  be  before.  But  the  government  is  now  more  deeply 
rooted  in  the  nation,  more  nearly  the  chief  organ  of  national 
life,  than  it  has  been  in  the  past.  Governments,  with  their 
increased  power  and  activity  in  the  various  departments  of 
the  social  and  industrial  life  of  the  people,  are  a  powerful 
agency  in  forming  and  unifying  nations.  Race,  language, 
religion,  a  historical  past  —  these  are  not  the  only  character- 
istics of  a  nation.  Peoples  differentiated  by  any  or  all  of 
these  may  be  patriots  of  a  nation  whose  culture  and  ideas 
they  have  absorbed  ;  and  then  the  powers  of  government  can 
be  used  to  deport  populations,  extirpate  languages,  enforce 
religious  conformity,  and  bury  history  out  of  sight.  But  only 
powerful  governments  can  deal  thus  with  small  and  indistinct 
nationalities,   for  the  organic  national  character  of    modern 


472  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1870 

government  impels  nationalities  to  reject  a  rule  alien  to  their 
national  genius  and  traditional  civilization.  The  spread  of 
education  and  literature,  the  improvement  of  communications, 
the  growth  of  national  industries,  the  quick  transmission  of 
news  and  opinions  —  all  these  tend  to  create  a  conformity  and 
establish  a  sympathy  among  people  of  the  same  country. 
Germans,  Frenchmen,  Englishmen,  Russians,  are  more  distinct 
and  more  bound  up  in  their  own  countries  and  governments 
than  formerly.  International  sympathies  and  movements  have 
given  way  to  patriotism  and  national  ambitions.  Germany  has 
led  the  way  in  the  national  movement,  the  adaptation  of  gov- 
ernment to  national  life  and  the  development  of  the  national 
spirit.  The  treaty  of  Versailles  and  the  assumption  by  King 
William  of  the  title  of  German  Emperor  on  the  invitation  of 
the  princes  and  with  the  concurrence  of  the  North  German 
Reichstag  only  established  German  unity  in  principle.  The 
unification  of  government  and  laws  and  the  consolidation  of 
the  empire  was  a  work  of  time,  and  is  still  going  on.  The 
system  of  government  in  Germany  is  nothing  like  what  the 
earlier  patriots  pictured  in  their  minds.  Before  the  Franco- 
German  war  there  was  a  powerful  liberal  party,  also  an 
aggressive  republican  party,  holding  out  ideals  drawn  from 
England,  France,  and  the  United  States,  to  whom  all  things 
connected  with  the  Prussian  government  were  abhorrent  —  the 
royal  prerogative  and  ministerial  rescripts  overriding  parlia- 
ment, militarism,  bureaucracy,  irresponsible  ministries,  and 
indirect  suffrage.  After  the  triumph  of  German  unity  this 
noisy  opposition  became  silent  or  joined  with  the  founders  of 
the  empire  in  molding  its  institutions.  The  protection  of 
the  realm  and  the  care  for  the  welfare  of  the  German  people 
were  the  objects  for  which  the  German  states  entered  into  an 
eternal  union.  The  Reichstag  draws  its  powers  from  uni- 
versal suffrage.  The  only  irreconcilable  opponents  of  the 
government  have  been  the  social  democrats.  Even  they 
have  had  an  influence  in  obtaining  legislation  for  the  benefit 
of  the  working  classes,  and  even  their  leaders  have  latterly 
accepted  the  monarchy  and  acquiesced  in  universal  military 
service.  No  government  has  made  more  efforts  than  the 
German  to  promote  the  welfare  of  all  classes  of  the  people, 
and  no  people  are  conscious  of  more  intimate  connection  with 


1870]  BATTLE   OF   SEDAN  473 

and  dependence  on  the  government.  The  army  itself  is  a 
strong  national  bond  and  in  its  way  a  democratic  and  equaliz- 
ing institution ;  for  rich  and  poor,  gentle  and  simple,  must 
serve  side  by  side  in  the  ranks.  The  only  distinction  is  made 
in  favor  of  and  in  the  interest  of  education.  The  public 
educational  system  in  Germany  is  an  abundant  source  of 
national  strength  and  cause  of  national  pride,  and  it  reaches 
the  whole  nation,  all  the  talents  and  aptitudes. 

French  education,  social  legislation,  military  life,  all  the 
institutions  that  cement  and  strengthen  the  national  spirit, 
bear  comparison  with  their  German  counterparts.  The  third 
French  republic  has  lasted  longer  than  the  first  empire,  than 
the  Restoration,  than  the  Orleanist  monarchy,  than  the  em- 
pire of  Louis  Napoleon.  While  the  enemies  of  former  gov- 
ernments grew  more  numerous  and  threatening  as  time  went 
on,  those  of  the  republic  have  lost  heart  and  influence,  and 
many  of  them  have  accepted  the  republic.  A  republican 
government  seems  to  be  suited  to  the  French,  and  those  who 
cavil  most  at  the  acts  and  personnel  of  the  government  are 
the  most  ardent  Republicans.  The  French  army,  now  more 
numerous  than  the  German,  is  a  national  army  in  a  sense 
unknown  in  the  time  of  Napoleon  III.  The  first  Napoleon 
said  that  the  army  should  be  one  with  the  nation,  the  nation 
one  with  the  army.  Such  was  his  army,  and  no  other  till 
the  Prussian  army  was  created.  Now  there  are  many  such 
national  armies,  but  none  more  popular  or  willingly  sup- 
ported than  the  French.  Military  service  and  its  cost  are 
heavy  burdens  on  the  people.  Personal  service  bears  harder 
on  the  individual  than  paying  taxes.  It  shows  the  growth 
of  national  spirit  since  governments  have  become  more  iden- 
tified with  the  people,  that  great  armies  and  navies,  enor- 
mously increased  taxation,  and  other  burdens  and  restrictions 
are  cheerfully  borne. 

The  work  of  carrying  on  government,  since  governmental 
functions  have  been  multiplied  and  reach  down  into  the  na- 
tional life  through  many  channels,  has  become  a  more  diffi- 
cult and  serious  business.  Trained  intellectual  ability  is  the 
qualification  for  office  in  France,  Germany,  Russia,  and  other 
countries,  and  the  entrance  is  usually  through  the  government 
schools.     This  opens  the  gate  wider  to  the  people,  and  forms 


474  DECISIVE   BATTLES  [1870 

another  link  between  the  people  and  the  government.  In  all 
countries  the  people  have  generally  more  faith  in  statesmen 
than  they  formerly  had,  and  the  statesmen  are  more  earnest 
and  industrious  in  their  duties  and,  with  less  arbitrary  power 
and  discretion,  feel  a  greater  sense  of  responsibility  than  in 
the  days  of  Castlereagh  or  Metternich,  or  of  the  sycophants 
of  Napoleon  III.  Under  autocratic  or  democratic  systems, 
the  impulse  of  national  patriotism  signified  by  the  German 
victory  at  Sedan  has  tended  to  enlarge  and  ennoble  the  insti- 
tutions of  government. 

F.  H. 


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